Head Teacher's Blog

Mr. Tatterton

Friday 8th February

Wow! If you were unable to join the 180+ of us at the year 8 production of Mary Poppins Jr this week you missed a truly spectacular performance. The cast really brought to life the iconic characters of the original screenplay and transported me back to my own childhood memories listening to the Disney LP album after watching the spell binding film hour after hour. It really was with great pride that I could sit and watch the talent here at Hugh Sexey display so much confidence and team work both on and backstage. I am sure that these memories will live with them forever and I hope that it has provided the inspiration for our future cohorts to push the boundaries of what they believe is achievable. So proud of you all.

It has been a really busy week for our year 8 pupils and parents as Kings of Wessex Academy hosted their GCSE options evening on Tuesday. It was great to see so many of you attend the information evening as you begin the process of selecting the curriculum to be followed for the next 3 years. All GCSE option forms should be returned completed to Kings by Friday 15th February. If you want to return them to Hugh Sexey before Friday, please hand them in at reception or the main school office and we will take them down for you.

Still with year 8 four pupils recently took part in a Cyberfirst Girls competition run by GCHQ. Cassie, Evie, Freya and Rachel took whatever opportunities were available to them to go online for the week of the competition and answered questions on cryptography, cyber security, logic, coding and networking. With their interest heightened all four are looking to attend a Cyberfirst Defender course. Well done girls.

Congratulations to our U12 girls football team who beat Somervale (Radstock) in the second round of the Somerset Schools Cup. For more information please visit the latest news section of the website.

Well done to our year 5 & 6 cross country runners who braved the cold and sleet to compete at Downside School in Stratton-on-the-Fosse. Despite or because of the wintery conditions our runners managed to improve their placings since they last raced. With over 340 runners our girls team remain consistent having achieved fifth in each of the first three races this season, whilst the boys team continue to vie for a top three place at the end of the season by coming second in this race. Keep up the training regime with Mr Jackson at Lunchtime and the results will continue to improve.

Our U13 boys football team also had a fantastic result this week beating Millfield in the semi-final of the county cup. Well done boys and good luck in the final.

On an individual level well done and congratulation to Alex Lemin who swam for Burnham on Sea at the recent county trails on 26th and 27th January. Alex set two personal bests in the 200m Individual medley 2:49:68 and 100m Breaststroke 1:32:40. Keep up the good work and the dedicated training regime.

Finally, just a reminder that we are closed to pupils on Friday 15th February as this is a teacher training day and we are holding a Mufti-day on Thursday 14th February. The theme ‘red’ and contribution of £1 will be donated to school productions.

Friday 1st February

The end of this week proved rather challenging with the forecast snow arriving and making driving and at times walking conditions in the rural sections of our wider Somerset community dangerous. Closing a school is always a difficult decision but it is always done with pupil, parent and staff safety in mind. I hope that you all had a safe weekend and managed to enjoy the snow-covered landscape. Spare a thought for those students trapped in a college in Cornwall overnight and on the A30 as the blizzard arrived sooner than expected.

During this week our year 5 pupils had a great trip down to our local Holy Trinity Church as part of their local community and RE curriculum. Learning outside of the classroom and making the topics ‘real’ allow our pupils to contextualise and consolidate the skills and knowledge that they are learning whilst shaping their understanding of the world around them.

Once again well done to our Sports leaders and our partner year 3 and 4 pupils who braved the wet and cold weather on Tuesday to take part in the Multi-skills session. I know that Mr Waterfield was very impressed with the commitment and enthusiasm demonstrated on a day which challenged everyone.

Our year 5, 6, 7 and 8 netball teams ventured across to Fairlands this week to put into action the skills and tactics they have been developing at netball club this term. We had some very good individual performances but most importantly they translated this into effective team work with victories for year 5, 6 and 7. Well done girls.

Finally, well done and congratulations to Finley (7RH) and Charlie (6MJ) who swam at the county swimming championships at Millfield School on Sunday 27th January. Both set personal best times in the Olympic size pool during their 50m breaststroke.

Year 8 GCSE options evening at Kings of Wessex Academy is on Tuesday 5th February from 5.00pm and the Mary Poppins production is here on Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th at 7.00pm, tickets are available on ParentPay.

Friday 25th January

Happy Robert Burns’ night. As another action-packed week ends, our pupils have been engaged in all kinds of activities. Our year 5 pupils ventured to Bristol and spent the day immersed in science at ‘We the curious’. The pupils I spoke to on Wednesday and Thursday had a fantastic ‘hands ‘on’ day but the overwhelming wow moment was inside the 3-D planetarium. I hope that the activity has fuelled their passion for science and will lead to some fantastic creative writing.

Year 6 also had a different experience in their science provision as Zoolab once again visited us. This is always a wonderful session and the pupils value the chance to see different animals up close and personal. I am sure the science team will post more information on the latest news section of the website.

Thank you to Mrs Allen and the brilliant sports leaders who organised a great gymnastics session for our partner First schools. The Gymnasium was packed with eager children and enthusiastic spectators culminating in a wonderful evening of grace and controlled power. We look forward to working more closely with our year 3 and 4 pupils as they move up and join us in the future.

It was also a real pleasure to welcome colleagues from other Somerset Middle Schools as part of our self-evaluation process. As expected they were extremely impressed with our pupils attitude to learning and the progress that they are making through their hard work and dedication. A special thank you to those pupils, you know who you are, who met with my Headteacher colleagues and sharing their experience of Hugh Sexey with them.

Well done to our victorious U13 football team who returned late on Friday from their county cup fixture Huish Episcopi Academy. Good luck in the next round.

Finally, our year 8 Mary Poppins cast have been working hard and tickets are on sale through ParentPay. It would be great to see you on Wednesday 6th or Thursday 7th at the evening performance supporting our production. If not I hope to see you on Tuesday 5th at Kings of Wessex Academy Key Stage 4 options evening.

Friday 18th January

It was fantastic to see so many Parents/Carers at the Key Stage 3 Parents’ Evening on Monday and Tuesday. I always enjoy meeting with the parents of the pupils I teach to share with them the great progress that they are making, and I hope that you found it as useful as I did?

I know I keep mentioning how quickly time flies but this week saw the First round deadline for applications to join us in year 5 next year and we have been advertising the Year 8 Key Stage 4 Options Evening on Tuesday 5th February 2019 in the main hall at the Kings of Wessex Academy. Please see the latest news section of the website or ask your child for the flyer they were given. This really is an important evening as it gives you the chance to explore the options available and ask about the combinations your child may study for the next three years. I hope to see you there.

Year 6 enjoyed another inspiring presentation and workshop with Clive Pig. His story telling always extends our pupils knowledge and understanding and takes them and their imagination on a wonderful journey.

Meanwhile our Under 11s girls football squad retained the County trophy after putting in a superb display throughout the day at Strode College. Playing the area winners from across the county in a two pool league and knockout competition the girls returned tired but jubilant. Well done again girls, good luck in the regional stage of the competition.

Friday 11th January

Welcome back everyone.

It was great to welcome our staff and pupils back to start 2019 this week. I know it is going to be another busy but fantastic term and we are really looking forward to all the challenges that lie ahead. As would be expected my first assembly of the year was based around ‘Going for Goals’ which supports this terms key theme of Endurance. I hope that all our pupils are ready to take in their stride the daily personal and academic challenges that they will face and show the resilience to keep going when the task appears, at first glance, unsurmountable or overwhelming.

It was really nice to welcome colleagues from Kings of Wessex and Churchill Academy this week as we work together to share good practice and ensure that our Key Stage 3 curriculum offer in English and science enhances our pupils’ opportunities and prepares their skills and knowledge to ensure a smooth and successful transition to Kings at the end of year 8. Talking of our year 8 pupils a key date for your diary is Tuesday 5th February. This is the ‘Year 8Kings of Wessex options evening’ and is quickly followed the following two nights with our ‘Mary Poppins’ production here at Hugh Sexey.

Next week we have our KS3 Parents’ evening on Monday and Tuesday and my colleagues and I look forward to seeing you and discussing the fabulous progress that your children are making this year. The following week our year 5 have a brilliant trip arranged to ‘we the curious’ on 23rd and 24th, while our year 6 have a visit from Zoolab to enhance their science curriculum.

Friday 21st December!

What a fabulous end to the term. Firstly, our 159 year 5 pupils and staff put on a brilliant Christmas production. I am always amazed at the number of fantastic and confident performers we have and how my team manage to bring them all together to deliver a great show. Thank you to all those parents/carers and loved ones who managed to see one of the three performances. Well done everyone, it was truly inspiring.

Whilst on the theme of inspiring I was lucky enough to join a packed congregation at Wells Cathedral to watch our joint carol service with Fairlands and Kings of Wessex. The quality of singing, reading and musical performance was breath-taking. I was in awe of the talent and ability on show and feel blessed that we have pupils of this calibre within the Cheddar Valley. The Splendour of the cathedral was matched only by the individuals who graced it. Following on from this joint service, thanks to Mrs Harrison, Rev Neill and all our performers who helped create a day of fantastic carol services at Holy Trinity, Blackford. Despite a wet start to the day the sun broke through tempted by the angelic voices emanating from the church to ensure ‘most’ of stayed dry. Thank you also to the Blackford community for allowing us to use the church.

We have also crammed in a Whole school off curriculum ‘challenge day’. This had a different focus in each year group, ranging from working towards creating a sustainable planet, team work on bridge building engineering skills and how to stay physically and emotionally healthy. The pupils were engaged in some difficult but fun tasks and we hope that they all took something different from the day.

The House captains this year decided that our annual Christmas Jumper day should bring happiness to those children who find this time of the year difficult due to circumstances out of their control and asked that we bring in small items that could gifted to other children this Christmas. Thank you for your generosity. It will bring an all too often missing, smile to a childs face this year.

Well done to all those pupils who have already received 200 or more House points this year. It really is a pleasure to come and see you and award you with your certificate. Achieving over 14 HP a week is no mean feat, keep up the good work.

Finally, to all our pupils, parents, carers and staff, best wishes and have a wonderful festive break and Christmas. We look forward to seeing you all in 2019. We look forward to seeing our pupils back with us on Monday 7th January.

Friday 7th December

On 3rd and 4th December year 7 pupils hosted their annual DT Christmas Fair as part of their Enterprise project. The pupils worked in small teams to design and make a batch of Christmas products that could be sold to raise money for a charity of their choice. The pupils raised a whopping £587.82. This is the highest amount ever raised in the DT Christmas Fair! Thank you and well done to all our budding entrepreneurs and pupils and staff who purchased the wonderful Christmas themed products. To see more please visit our latest news section of the website.

Following on from the Christmas theme, thank you to the PTA who organised a fantastic disco on Thursday night. The pupils had a great time entertained by the ‘Disco Queen’. I would also like to express our thanks to the parent volunteers who freely gave of their time to ensure this event could run.

This week we have the year 5 production on Monday and Tuesday as well as our year group cross curricular themed ‘Challenge Day’. I am sure it is going to be another great week.

Friday 30th November

As another busy week and month comes to an end, I cannot believe that we are already in December on our return next week. Thursday was an interesting start to the day with a power cut ensuring that my colleagues and I were kept on our toes. Fortunately, this issue was rectified as the buses started arriving and pupils were being dropped off.

Well done to all those pupils who this week we have purchased books during the travelling book fair. I am delighted that so many of our pupils enjoy reading and find time to escape into the literary worlds created by so many brilliant authors. Through your purchases we have raised £758.14 which will spent on books to enrich the school library. Congratulations to the 4 lucky raffle winners, I hope that you were able to spend this on your favourite genre.

Wednesday saw our year eight girls hockey team represent the school at the Area Mendip hockey tournament. The fixtures included games against: Wells Blue, Oakfield, Selwood, Crispin and Fairlands. All the games were keenly contested and brought out the very best from the squad. Winning two, drawing one and only losing to a very strong Wells Blue team the squad finished the tournament in 3rd place. Well done girls, Mrs Allen was very proud of your efforts and skills on show.

This week the PTA are holding their annual Christmas Disco on Thursday 6th December. Tickets are still available on ParentPay but they are being snapped up quickly.

Friday 23rd November

As the day light begins to fade at a rapid pace could I ask our parents and carers to remind our pupils to be extra careful when travelling to and from school. Please make sure that you are visible and warm.

We received some brilliant news this week from the Primary & Secondary Engineer Leaders Award - PROTOTYPE - South West. Last year Miss Lattibeaudiere and I had the pleasure of travelling to UWE to witness Philippa Griffiths receive her award as the South West Year 7 Young Engineer Winner for her fantastic RLBS (Red Line Breaking System). This engineering idea has now been chosen to be made into a Prototype by the WISE team at The University of the West of England! This really is a remarkable achievement and possibly the first step in making this life saving idea a reality. Once again it clearly demonstrates the creativity and critical thinking skills of the young people we are so fortunate to teach.

Well done to our year 5 pupils who this week completed our House matches. More action shots can be seen on our ‘Latest News’ section of the school website.

Well done to Nelly Lee, Asha Leavey and Grace Brazier who competed in the NSEA Regional Show jumping qualifier at Kings Sedgmore Equestrian at the weekend. All rode brilliantly with 3 fantastic clear rounds, which culminated in Team 4th place in a very large competitive field. I hope that the girls made sure that the ponies had a little well-done treat!

Congratulations to our year 7 girls hockey squad who competed brilliantly at the Mendip area hockey tournament. Their fantastic team work and work ethic has been rewarded with the chance to represent Mendip at the county tournament later this term. Good look girls and well done.

Finally, well done and thank you to our sports leaders, First school pupils and colleagues and parents/carers who attended the inter school cross country event here at HSMS. It was cold and dark at the finish but this could not dampen the enthusiasm and endeavour on display. Keep up the good work everyone.

Friday 16th November ‘Children in Need’

As always it was great to welcome so many of you to our year 6 Parents’ Evening this week. It is always fantastic to see you and share the great progress your children are making with us. I hope that you have a much better idea of what work your children have been doing and a greater understanding of the curriculum that they will be immersed in this year.

Our year 5 pupils had a wonderful STEM Bridge Building workshop this week exploring the engineering behind the Severn crossing suspension bridge. Donning hard hats and high visibility vests they set to work on building a 20-metre-long high tensile steel suspension bridge. Well done everyone, it was brilliant to see your team work in action. To cap off an action-packed week our year 5 also had the inspirational Clive Pig visit and lead absolutely fantastic workshops.

On the theme of engineering some of our year 7 pupils made the first of two visits to Hinkley B Power Station. This trip was a joint Humanities and Science trip, aimed to help pupils learn about the generation process and environmental considerations of Nuclear Energy and the complex planning and infrastructure needs that a project of this magnitude requires.

It was also another very busy sporting week with pupils across the whole school competing in the House hockey and rugby games. For the results and to see some pupils in action please see the school ‘Latest News’ section of the website.

Our year 8 boys travelled away to start their Somerset Cup campaign at Bucklers Mead School. Playing on their 4G Astro Turf there could be no excuse as the surface was perfect for fast accurate passing. A really efficient team performance ensured that they ran out comfortable winners and move into the next round. Well done boys.

Our Key Stage 2 girls travelled to our friends at Fairlands to play hockey. Both teams played in excellent spirit with great individual skills and team work. Well done to all those taking part and I hope that it has motivated you further to develop those skills.

Well done to all our year 8 sports ambassadors who once again organised a brilliant First Schools football festival here at HSMS. It is always great to welcome our First Schools and is a fantastic part of our transition process.

Finally, thank you and well done to all our pupils and staff who supported ‘Children in Need’ this week. I know that your efforts will help a child who, through no fault of their own, faces challenges that require support, guidance and love

Next week some year 7&8 pupils will visit the Aerospace Museum as part of DT trip and we are visited by the Travelling Book Fair.

Friday 9th November ‘Lest we Forget’

Welcome back and I hope that you have all had a fantastic half term break. We have had several projects going on over half term which included the installation of 92 solar panels above year 6 and the hockey markings painted on our wonderful new MUGA. Once again thank you to all those parents and carers who contributed to this project.

Well done to our junior cross country teams who competed at Collett Park in Shepton Mallet. All 11 of our Year 5 and 6 runners put in 100% effort, with notable well placed results from Emilia, Ruby (4th), Charlie (9th), Fynn and Zach. With the evening light fast fading the boys nearly needed head torches for their race, which was the final one of the event. The next race is now in the New Year when the evenings begin to get lighter again.

Following on from our year 7 poetry workshops last term our KS2 pupils were treated to a ‘Poetry and Poppies Workshops’ this week. As expected our pupils fully engaged and enjoyed the opportunity to work with an external poet and explore the meaning behind some great poems.

Friday marked our Remembrance Service, with pupils paying tribute to the servicemen from Somerset who paid the ultimate price for the freedoms we take for granted today. The weather thankfully abated just as the school cadets led the Royal British Legion Standard Bearer around the cenotaph to begin our service. Thank you to Mrs Adair for her organisation of the event and collective worship which was extremely poignant, our honoured guests from the Royal British Legion, current service personnel, Rev Jeremy Hellier the Secondary RE Advisor for the Diocese of Bath and Wells, members of the governing body and of course our pupils. Their conducted befitted and paid tribute to such an historical moment 100 years after the last shot was fired.

Finally, we look forward to seeing our year 6 parents’ and carers at the Parents’ evenings on Monday and Tuesday and supporting ‘Children in Need’ on Friday with a whole school Mufti-day.

Friday 26th October

Thank you to all our year 5, 7 and 8 parents and carers who attended the ‘Parents/Tutor’ evening this week. It was fantastic to see you all and celebrate the wonderful work that our pupils have been doing this term. Speaking to lots of our year 5 pupils they have totally dismissed the worries they had about the size of the school and transition. I hope that you too have settled into the Middle school system and are continuing to help them become more independent and responsible.

Congratulations to Martha (5AT), Bill (5JC), Lola (7RA) and Oliver (7RA) who received their £5 gift voucher when they found the hidden golden coins during the canteens Pirate themed menu day.

Thank you to the SAINT team of school nurses who administer our year 5 Flu immunisations this week. Well done to all our pupils for taking it in their stride with the minimum of fuss.

It was great to have a visiting Poet - Tony Walsh, join us this week and give all our year 7 pupils a masterclass and workshop. The pupils were inspired by his sessions and I am sure will reflect much of the tips and hints shared with them in their creative writing and analytical thinking when assessing or reading poetry for pleasure.

Well done, Emily (7KS), who is a member of the Cheddar Judo Club and recently competed in the British Regional Judo Championships and won a bronze medal in the Year 6-7 age group. What a fantastic achievement. Keep working hard and good luck in your next tournament.

Congratulations to Mary (8SK), Rosa (8DJ), Lucy (8GDA), and Freya (8DJ) who represented HSMS as ball girls at the Bristol Bears Women's Rugby match against Firwood Waterloo RFC in the Tyrrell's Premiership League. I know that it was a fabulous experience and I hope provided yet more inspiration to the girls.

Well done to Thelonious and Will, 8DJ, who raised over £160 for Lepra. They did a sponsored bike ride which included cycling up and down Cheddar Gorge.Thank you for all your initiative and endeavour boys.

Commiserations to our U13 girls football team who came up against their English Schools National Cup nemesis again. In a very well fought game the experience and strength of Gordano edged the victory. Some clinical finishing by Gordano left our girls deflated but I am sure that they will bounce back in their next game and learn from this experience. Well played both teams and good luck in the next round Gordano.

After ½ term we have a special visitor to KS2 to deliver Poetry and Poppies Workshops as we build towards our remembrance service on Friday 9th November. Poppies in support of the Royal British legion will be available all that week.

Finally, just a last reminder that Year 8 applications to join Kings of Wessex need to be completed by 31st October to secure a place for September 2019. Links can be found in my previous blog (5th October) or via the transition section of the website. Have a brilliant ½ term break and enjoy the quality time together.

We return on Monday 5th November, when the nights will be drawing in quickly. Please remind your children to extra careful when travelling to and from the school and make sure that they are visible to other road users.

Friday 19th October

Our visit from members of the Jolaurabi School, Kenya, was the perfect way to finish this week. The joy and energy they brought through their performances and interactions was truly infectious. Watching them interact and join in lessons with our pupils was inspirational and I am sure that all our pupils will remember this visit long after they leave HSMS. I would like to thank the pupils and staff who visited us and wish them a safe and enjoyable trip home when they finally finish their tour. I would also like to thank Mrs Adair and Megan Rees, now a year 9 pupil at KoW, for organising the event and helping to make it run so smoothly.

We received some fantastic news this week from the National Education Co-ordinator, First World War Centenary, Battlefield Tours Programme, UCL Institute of Education. 'I am delighted to inform you that Hugh Sexey Church of England Middle School has been chosen, as one of only six schools across the country, to receive one of our National ‘Legacy 110’ Awards, 2018. This is in recognition of the exceptional work undertaken by yourself and your students on your First World War Centenary Battlefields Tour ‘Legacy 110’ project, designed to ensure a lasting remembrance of the First World War across your local community.' This is a fantastic achievement and testament to the work of Mrs Adair and two of our now ex-pupils Alex Cramp and Anna Littlewood-Hillsdon. I am sure that they will have a day at the New Armouries Banqueting Suite, HM Tower of London that will live long in their memory. We are so proud of your achievements, well done and enjoy the Awards ceremony.

Well done and thank you to all those pupils who participated in the Lepra fun workout to support the ongoing work of this charity that we support biannually. Your efforts will make a significant difference to those people less fortunate and I am sure will be gratefully welcomed. If you still have donations to hand in please take it to the finance office so that we can forward it to Lepra.

Congratulations to our year 7 A and B girls hockey teams who played Crispin this week. Both teams played excellent hockey, passing the ball with accuracy and fluency in attack and tackling well in defence. Both teams recorded good victories which is reward for their hard work and commitment at hockey club and in lessons. Well done girls, keep working on your individual skills and team work.

Not to be outshone the U13 boys football team also played Crispin on a fantastic 4G artificial surface. Once the boys became accustomed to the ‘new’ surface they found their attacking rhythm with some delightful one and two touch football leading to well worked goals. As the girls had done the boys returned comfortable winners. Well done boys and thank you to Crispin for hosting the fixture.

Finally, on a sporting front well done to the year 7 boys rugby team who played an enjoyable game at Wells Blue. Building on their previous success against Crispin they continued to play well organised team rugby and eventually ran out winning by 6 tries to 2. For more information about each of these games please visit the latest news section of the school website.

Congratulations to Mr James Turbitt who has been elected to the Board of Governors as a Parent Governor. We look forward to working with James during his term.

As always, we look forward to meeting our year 5 and KS3 parents and carers at the tutor evenings next week and just a reminder that we have an INSET day on Friday 26th October so we will see our pupils on Monday 5th November.

Friday 12th October

It was fantastic to visit Kings of Wessex 'Open Evening' on Wednesday and see so many of our Parents and pupils. It was also really nice for me to see our former pupils acting as ambassadors and catch up with the progress they are making. It was also really reassuring to hear how quickly they have settled into their new surroundings and programmes of study. I hope that you enjoyed the evening as much as I did. The application deadline to secure a place at Kings of Wessex Academy is 31st October and if you have not already done so we sent you an email link to the access the local authority admissions website and placed a hyper link on our Parents/Transition section of the school website.

Wednesday also saw our pupils embrace World Mental Health day with pupils wearing ‘Yellow for mental health’ and bringing in Harvest donations for the Cheddar Food bank. Well done everyone, the school certainly looked brighter and I am sure your contributions will be gratefully received by members of our wider community.

Over 45 year 8 pupils visited Bovington Tank Museum as part of the enrichment opportunity offered by the Humanities team. The pupils I spoke to had a brilliant time and it helped put into context the work that they have been doing around WW1 and the deployment and evolution of tank warfare. I am sure that seeing these historic tanks close up has demonstrated the conditions our WW1 combatants endured.

Well done to our year 7 and 8 girls who played Wells Blue at hockey this week. The year 7 A and B teams both ran out victorious in well contested games while our year 8 team had a comfortable 5-0 win. Well done girls and I hope that the new MUGA is helping develop those stick skills even further. For more details please visit the latest news section of the website.

The first race of the junior cross-country league also took place at Millfield Prep School with 11 runners from Years 5 and 6 representing HSMS this week. With over 400 runners from 20+ schools the girls team finished a very creditable 5th place whilst the boys team, defending the championship they won last year, are currently second behind Millfield Prep. For more details again please visit the website. Thank you to Mr Jackson for the time he has freely given to their training and events, I know that he is very proud of you all.

We have another busy week coming up with the Lepra Workout Day Tuesday on 16th October, a visit from a Drama performance group delivering ‘Tommy Atkins’ to our year 8’s on Thursday 18th October and finally the fantastic Kenyan African Choir Visit HSMS on Friday 19th October. Wow….

Friday 5th October

Are we really five weeks into the new year already! Our year 5 and 6 pupils benefited this week from attending the very informative NSPCC ‘Speak Out Stay Safe workshops’. We are grateful for the time and input from the NSPCC and hope that our pupils found it informative, thought provoking and relevant.

We also welcomed a representative from LEPRA who led a KS2 and KS3 assembly to launch or bi-annual whole school fund raising opportunity on Tuesday 16th October to support the work of LEPRA.

On the sporting front, well done to Zach Tarring, 5EC, who successfully took part in the Exeter Harriers combined pentathlon. Zach scored points in 60m sprint, 75m hurdles, shot put, long jump and 600m. This was Zach's first competition but he now looks forward to more challenges. Good luck in the coming months. In the pool Alex Lemin, 8AMW, swam in the County Development Competition held at Millfield and won 6 out of his 7 races. Alex was competing against other 12year olds in the county and was the fastest county swimmer. Still in the pool congratulations to Charlie Halford in 6MJ who had a day to remember at his swim meet. He was 3rd fastest in the Under 12s 50m breaststroke, and 1st in the 50m freestyle. Charlie was just 0.4 seconds off a county trial time. Well done boys and keep up the good work.

The Mendip Senior Cross-Country League kicked off this week with runners from Year 7 and 8 enjoying the sunny and picturesque setting of a cross country race close to Glastonbury Tor. Well done to all those who competed but especially Ellis who ran a strong and steady race and won a top three medal for the Year 7 Boys.

The year 8 rugby team put in a commanding performance against Millfield prep school. Demonstrating great team work and individual handling they ran out victorious. Not to be outshone, the year 7 rugby team put in a very strong showing against a large and powerful Crispin side. Ultimately, our year 7 boys had too much game experience and were able to outwit and overpower Crispin in most areas again securing a good victory.

Finally, on the sporting front, well done to the U11 girls football squad who competed in the Area tournament at Strode College. They returned as champions and delighted at with their performance. Well done girls and good luck in your next fixture.

Next week we will be supporting the ‘Wear yellow for Mental Health’ awareness day. We are asking that pupils support this day by wearing mufti and donating to the Cheddar Food bank as part of our Harvest celebrations.

Thank you to all those families that joined us on Thursday at our ‘Open Day and Evening’. We all hope that you enjoyed your visit. Just a reminder that January 15th is the deadline for application to join us in year 5 September 2019. I would also like to thank my colleagues and especially our pupils for their hard work and giving their time freely to meet you. Please contact the school office if you have any questions that may have arisen since your visit.

It was great to join our year 6 on their visit to the water treatment plant and bring their humanities project to life. Nothing seems as much fun as splashing through a stream measuring cross sections and water velocity. As always, the feedback from our hosts was very complementary. Well done year 6.

Our Key Stage 2 pupils also had a very informative presentation from the NSPCC this week when they led a ‘Stay Safe’ assembly. The key messages will be reinforced over the coming weeks with their tutor.

A group of our year 7 STEM pupils visited Longleat to see maths and science in action. See the latest news section of the website for more information.

The school Equestrian team had their first outing of the school year last week, competing in the National School Equestrian Association Grassroots show jumping competition at Kings Sedgmoor Equestrian centre. In the 40 cm class Henry McCutcheon, Poppy Scriven, Phoebe Wills, Leah Wills and Grace Evans all jumped brilliantly to take the 1st team spot which means that they have qualified for the national championships. In the 50 cm competition, Grace Brazier jumped a superb clear round to come 1st and Poppy Scriven got a well-deserved 3rd place. Grace Brazier also competed in the 60 cm class and jumped another lovely clear round to come 4th against some tough competition. Well done everyone and good luck in the next round.

Congratulations Georgina, 7RA, who recently won 3 medals in a cheerleading competition held on 22nd September. She is part of the Kings squad which trains for this competition every year. The day started at 11am and ended at 6:30 pm and Georgina's squad performed 3 routines: a pom routine, a stunt routine (very acrobatic) and finally a street dance routine - all watched by an audience of over 1,000 spectators. There were a lot of teams competing and Kings squad did brilliantly, achieving 5th place on the first routine, 3rd place on the stunt routine and 4th place on their street dance routine. Very well-done Georgina, and good luck with your future competitions.

Well done to the U13 Boys football team who hosted and beat Worle on Friday. Keep up the good work.

Finally, just some advanced notice of the Open Evening on Wednesday 10th October at Kings Academy. I look forward to seeing our year 8 pupils exploring the Academy and our past pupils acting as ambassadors.

Friday 21st September

As always it was great to see so many of our year 6 Parents and Carers at the Curriculum information evening this week. We hope that you found it useful and it went some way to explaining the year ahead. As mentioned the presentation is available on the school website at: http://www.hughsexey.com/curriculum-overview/ .

We are all delighted with the speed with which the year 5 pupils have settled into life at Hugh Sexey and engaged with some of the extracurricular opportunities we provide. On this note well done to the year 5 rugby squad who fielded two teams and put in an inspired performance in the tag rugby competition at Millfield Prep school. The newly formed sides played exceptional rugby against the hosts and Kingswood from Bath. Well done on your victories and keep up the good work.

A very windy Friday saw our U13 girls kick off their ESFA National Football competition with a home match against Priory School from Weston Super Mare. Keeping the ball moving quickly on the floor to negate the difficult conditions Hugh Sexey eventually secured a 5-1 victory. For more details please visit the Latest News section of the website. Well done girls!

Finally, on the sporting front congratulations to Nathan Kemp (7RA), who ran a very well-paced race to win gold, in the Year 7 Boys cross country event at Millfield. We hope that this is just the first in many victories this season.

Well done and congratulations to Matilda Friend (7RA), and Ava Robinson (8RM), on recently passing their Grade 3 Musical Theatre exams. Well done both of you and we hope to see you perform soon.

Friday 14th September

Thank you to all those parents/carers who joined us for the Year 7 Information evening on Wednesday. It was great to meet with you and explain how the curriculum and assessment is arranged for Key Stage 3 and builds towards the delivery of the new GCSE specifications. I hope that you found it useful and provided all the answers to any questions that you may have had. We look forward to seeing our Year 6 parents and carers on the 19th.

A huge thank you to Mrs Thorne who organised the smooth running of the whole school individual photos on Monday. I hope that you are pleased with the image and this very special memento of your child’s on-going school years. I know that the year 5 pupils were especially excited as this allowed Mrs Burrows to produce their individual Id cards and distribute their ‘House’ lanyards.

I had the pleasure and privilege of joining the staff and students at the Kings of Wessex ‘Awards Evening’ on Thursday. It was fantastic to see so many former Hugh Sexey pupils being presented with a range of awards and celebrate their wonderful GCSE and A level outcomes achieved this year. The students are truly inspiring and continue to produce the best outcomes in Somerset. Well done everyone and we all hope your future is as bright as your smiles.

I would also like to thank our parents and carers for their patience at pick up time on the ‘loop’ this week. Your cooperation in adhering to our one-way system has resulted in all of our pupils calmly and safely leaving the site before 4.00pm. Just a reminder that pupils will be escorted to the school main reception after 4.00pm if you are, for any reason, held up and therefore running late. I would also just like to remind parents/carers to be mindful and respectful of our neighbours and recognise their personal and/or business needs at this very busy time of the day.

We have another busy couple of weeks coming up with the year 6 parents’ information evening on Wednesday, year 7 STEM trip to Longleat, year 6 water treatment plant visit, NSPCC Speak out Stay safe presentation, year 4/5 class teacher transition visit from our First school partners and then ‘Open evening’ on 27th September.

Friday 7th September

Welcome back! It is great to see everyone looking so smart at the start of another exciting and action-packed year. It is really nice to welcome our new pupils and families to the Hugh Sexey family and I hope that your time with us is enjoyable. I am sure that by this time next week both pupils and parents/carers will have settled into the rhythm and routines of life in a large rural school.

As well as our new pupils it was also great to welcome Mr May and Miss Ralph to our year 5 teaching team, Mrs Palmer as our new Librarian, Mr Luckins as our PE and ART/DT technician and Miss Durrant and Mrs Evans as additional Learning support assistants. We are delighted to have recruited them and I am sure that they will love working with your children.

The MUGA is now up and running giving us that much needed additional social play space and the PE department are looking forward to enhancing their curriculum delivery over the coming months and years. Once again, thank you to all those parents/carers, pupils and members of the wider community who contributed and made this facility possible.

Well done to Innes (8DJ) who over the summer completed her second season with the National Youth Ballet, with a Gala performance of ‘Bright Young Things’ at Sadlers Wells in London. She was awarded ‘Outstanding member of the company’, by the artistic director Mikah Smillie and the NYB staff. Innes was then cast in a principal role for the ‘Red Balloon puppeteer’, and worked really hard to learn the piece before the company moved to the Crescent Theatre, Birmingham. Following dress and technical rehearsals, two evening and one matinee performances in Birmingham, she travelled to London for the final performance. What a fantastic achievement and deserved recognition for all your hard work and commitment Innes.

It was also fantastic to hear that Anna-Rose (8AMW) returned after a very successful visit to Scotland for the European Speed Water-skiing Championships as European Champion. Anna-Rose can be seen clutching her race medals on the latest news section of the website. Congratulations and this wonderful achievement Anna-Rose and good luck in your next race.

Next week we have the school photographer coming into Hugh Sexey on Monday, so a weekend of practise smiling would help please. We also have our Year 7 curriculum evening for parents on Wednesday at 6.00pm so I look forward to seeing you then.

Friday 20th July 2018

Well here we are the last day Term. It has been a wonderful year with fantastic Year 6 SATs and Year 8 GL academic outcomes as well as brilliant personal achievements and whole school endeavour. I know I say it publicly a lot but this really is a great school and I feel privileged to be part of the team that work hard to give our community the best possible educational experience we can. Thank you to all our staff and pupils who make this such a special place to work.

We are delighted to report that our efforts to support ‘Race for Life’ has passed £3200, which is a tremendous effort. Well done everyone!

It has been amazing to hear about the fantastic talent we have on show during the Art festival here at HSMS this week. The quality of finalists representing their House has been off the scale. The breadth of talent and courage on display reminds me why we have the best job in the world. To see some of these performers please visit our latest news section of the school website.

As the week edged closer to today our year 7 and 8 enjoyed their celebration trips to Crealy and Weston Pier. This was a great way for the year groups to reflect on another fantastic years work and have fun with their friends and peers. To make the last week even sweeter I would like to pass on my sincere thanks to a very generous parent who provided an ice cream treat for each of our pupils on Thursday. It was really appreciated and welcomed by all our lucky pupils.

Many congratulations to George and Maisy who emerged as Champions in the year 8 tennis finals. 32 mixed doubles pairs entered the event culminating in a first to 5 matches final. Aidan and Ella meet them in the final and contributed to a great event.

Having read and loved the book, " Street Child", 6AF decided to write to the author Berlie Doherty to thank her for writing such a thought-provoking, exciting story. They also had many questions about the characters and they wanted to tell her about some of the work they had completed based on the book. The pupils were all very excited to receive a reply. She thought their questions were really interesting and explained that making up our own stories about the rest of a character's life can be just as rewarding as reading what the author thinks might have happened. She is going to mention us in her next website newsletter, so we are all looking forward to reading that soon.

Many congratulations to all of the winners at the year 8 sports awards. They really have been a vintage year group and they should all be so proud of their achievements. We would like to wish them well for the future and hope that they continue to engage in and enjoy sport and exercise.

The MUGA is finally in the last stages of being ready for use with kick boards being applied this week. We just managed to get the surface ready so that the leaving year 8 were able to have a run around on it today! Thank you to all those parents and carers who have contributed as well as the local sponsors and PTA. It will make a significant difference to our all-weather play space next year.

Finally, good luck to all those pupils who are leaving us to start the next exciting phase of their learning journey and best wishes to those parents/carers who have now ended their association with HSMS. I hope that you have enjoyed your time with us and that you will have much more to celebrate in the future.

Have a great summer and see you all next year. The first day back for pupils is Wednesday 5th September. Full uniform.

Thursday 12th July

Once again it has been an action packed time here at HSMS and yet again I have been blown away by the pupils, both current and future, attitudes and enthusiasm. Last Tuesday we hosted 160 ‘new’ pupils who will be joining our school family in September whilst getting ever closer to regrettably saying good bye to our wonderful year 8. Change is always exciting and inevitable but sometimes leads to feelings of sadness.

It was fantastic to welcome our parents and carers into school on Tuesday evening to meet with their child’s tutor for next year. We hope that you found the evening both useful and enjoyable. We have put the transition evening information on our school website if you were unable to attend in the parents section/transition. We are really looking forward to working with you over the next 4 years and sharing with you the fantastic achievements that will follow.

I had the pleasure of visiting our colleagues at Lympsham this week as part of the Trusts ongoing work looking at mathematics provision across all phases of the WLT. It is truly inspiring watching early years to year 4 engrossed in the maths curriculum as well as receiving a warm welcome from those pupils I had met on transfer day. It really is a privilege to see each of the schools in action and understand the journey that our pupils have been on before joining us. Many thanks to the pupils and staff who made it a great visit.

The world of virtual reality comes to KS2. Each class spent an amazing hour looking at the solar system through virtual reality headsets. The children were totally amazed by the incredible technology and they even had the chance to revise their knowledge of Earth, Space and the Solar System.

This week drummers from the Wessex Learning Trust and the Cheddar Valley joined at Hugh Sexey to showcase their musical talents to parents. It is amazing to see pupils from year 1 to 13 working together under the musical direction of Giles Hicks. This is really what the trust stands for, Well done!

On the theme of music it was fantastic to join our parents at the music concert held this week. The dedicated hard work from both pupils and Mrs Salmon resulted in some breath-taking performances. Well done to all the performers, I hope that you reflect on the evening with a great deal of pride.

Whilst mentioning being breathless, the ‘Race for Life’ event organised by Mrs Le Hunt was remarkable and again fills you with a sense of pride and humility. To see the whole school participate in the 5K challenge was inspiring and memorable. Flashes of pink bouncing around the site perimeter as pupils and staff, ran, jogged and at times walked to complete the challenge was amazing. The event supported by you will raise over £1900 and every penny will go to this worthy charity and will I am sure make a difference to families across the country. It was also a time for us all to reflect and reading the messages that the pupils carried with them as they ran for loved ones cannot pass without bringing a tear to your eye. I must make a special mention of Ellie-Marie Atwell who to date has raised in excess of £350, Luca Hughes £100 and Emily Wainwright £93. Thank you very much. It was a fantastic way to bring the school community together and show off the compassion, endurance and thankfulness which are embedded in our core values.

Friday 29th June

What a glorious June and yet more fantastic achievements and opportunities for our pupils. Miss Lattibeaudiere and I were humbled and blessed to be able to attend the Young engineer awards at UWE on Friday evening. To be in the presence of so many talented young minds was inspiring. Philippa Griffiths (7AMW) collected her award as year 7 winner from over 27000 entries across the South West. Well done again Philippa!

We also had trip 3 and 4 safely return from a very warm London residential. Thank you to all my colleagues who supported the trip and worked so hard behind the scenes to make them happen. To see more please visit the latest news section of the website.

Thank you to Mrs Adair who, despite the motorway closures and subsequent traffic chaos, managed to get our year 7 pupils to Wells Cathedral for a guided tour and educational talk about the life and daily workings of this magnificent cathedral.

Thank you to our Wessex Learning Trust colleagues at Kings of Wessex who received our year 7 pupils for two taster days as part of the transition arrangements. This is a really important part of our pupils journey and I hope has given them an insight into what lay ahead as they embark on the next phase of their learning. I cannot believe that our year 8 now only have 15 school days left with us!

Finally, thank you to the PE team who hosted the Swimming Gala’s this week. I am sure that the refreshing water helped keep the swimmers cool but did not dampen their spirits.

Please remember to complete the transport questionnaire via survey monkey as in my previous blog by the end of this week.

Friday 22nd June

Thank you to all those parents and carers who joined Mr Drew and the NSPCC for the e-safety information session this week. The presentation and subsequent discussions were comprehensive, covering a wide range of digital safety hints and tips.

Following a letter from the Local Authority to some parents and cares about the removal of ‘paid’ places on some school bus transport routes we held a meeting with those affected. It was agreed that the Wessex Learning Trust should canvas a wider community response to the issues faced by those parents and carers who are not entitled to Local Authority bus passes. If you are entitled to funded transport this will not change.

If you are affected or would like the Trust to consider how we might be able to help you access Hugh Sexey Church of England Middle School and/or The Kings of Wessex please take the time to complete a survey by visiting a Surveymonkey at: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/2CFB5X6Thank you.

Thank you to the year 6 team who spent two action packed, if rather hot days, at the Mendip Activity Centre, Churchill. The pupils had a wonderful time and excitedly recounted all the fantastic activities that they had enjoyed. It was a fitting way to celebrate the end of SATs and a brilliant year. I hope that they were not too tired on Friday night and slept well?

Talking of tired pupils we are half way through our year 8 residential trip to London. The weather was fantastic for both groups and the two days were overflowing with great things to do. The pupils I spoke to were unable to tell me which activity was their favourite as they flipped from the eye to the show and St Paul’s. I know that next weeks trips will be just as good and the weather is set to be even warmer so plenty of water and a hat would be good!

On the sporting front congratulations to Will who hit 103 for Somerset in a County cricket game against Dorset. This is a magnificent achievement at any level but even more remarkable at County level. Will also invests a lot of time into helping our younger players and we know he was thrilled to see the year 6 retain the Whylie shield.

Congratulations to Megan, 8RT, who represented the Hugh Sexey Equestrian Team at the NSEA Dressage Competition at Millfield School on Sunday 17th June. This was a really strong competition and I am sure that Megan has gained a great deal from this experience. If you want to Megan on her beautiful pony please visit the latest news section of the website.

Finally, our Key Stage 3 sports days spanned 3 days with 1500 metres on Wednesday, Field events Thursday and finished with the track events on Friday. All of our athletes had ample opportunity to participate and showcase the hard work they have invested in their athletics lessons. Well done everyone and thank you to the PE department who invested so much time in providing this great event.

Friday 15th June

Our year 8 pupils had their ‘School leavers’ photos and took delivery of their ‘Leavers Hoodies’ which signals a changing of the guard. It is always really sad to think about pupils leaving at the end of their journey with us as they provide so many rich and happy memories. We know that they will continue to be successful and grow to become remarkable young people, ready to shape the world and make a significant contribution in their communities but it is still with sadness that we say goodbye. I hope that those who are going on the school residential to London with their peers have a fabulous time and create memories that will stay with them for life.

We have, as always, had some wonderful achievements over the last week. If you check the latest news section of the website you will see many of our pupils celebrating their success. Our year 8 pupils have produced some fantastic products in DT this year and examples of their work can be seen in a slide show on the website. Still in DT some of our pupils in year 7 DT participated in the South West Secondary Engineer Leaders Award. Pupils were asked to interpret the question - If you were an engineer - what would you do?' We are delighted to say that Philippa Griffiths (7AMW) has won the Year 7 category. She will be presented with a trophy at a private awards ceremony and her design - Red Line Breaking System. Congratulations to Megan Rees (8RT) and Innes Oliver (7IA) who have also both been awarded distinction for the design they produced for the Secondary Engineer Leaders Award. All of these designs will be put on display at a public exhibition in UWE Bristol Exhibition and Conference Centre on Saturday 30th June. This exhibition is being sponsored by the Ministry of Defence DE&S.

Congratulations to Oscar Boorman, 7GDA, who has been selected for North Somerset JPL’s elite U13s squad for next season; he has already started pre-season training. Good luck next season Oscar.

Well done Autumn (5JC) who competed at the Taunton Festival of The Arts dance competition last week. She won her first gold medals in the Modern and Tap categories and at the end of the week was awarded the adjudicators choice of ‘most promising junior dancer’ from the whole festival. A great week and fantastic achievement, Autumn.

The Hugh Sexey tennis team made the journey to Millfield Prep School for a girls and boys A team fixture. This was a wonderful experience for all involved and will strengthen our pupils resolve and inspire them to develop further their tennis skills. Staying with sport our year 8 girls travelled to play Rounders at Wells Blue. This match has historically been a close, good natured match and this game was exactly that. The girls played with great team spirit and both teams thoroughly enjoyed the event. In a closely contested game HSMS returned 11-10 victors.

Pupils and parents across all year groups enjoyed fun filled Sports days as the annual House events took place. The pupils competed really well achieving personal best and contributed to their house overall points tally. What was great to see was the good-natured support and encouragement for all those doing their very best. Well done to all those who helped run the events, support our pupils and most of all competed. Please visit the website to see which house was success.

Finally, our Key Stage 3 pupils had the exciting opportunity to visit Twickenham to watch the Premiership Final between Exeter Chiefs and Saracens. A fantastic day was had by all despite the Chiefs loss to a strong Saracens side.

Friday 25th May

Thank you to all our staff and pupils for making this another wonderful but very busy term. I still cannot believe how quickly the days pass but I know that I would not swap it for any other job.

Thank you to our year 7 pupils and MFL team who visited our First schools as part of the French Café visits this week. I know that our pupils love to visit their old First school and share their passion for French and encourage conversational French.

A group of year 6 pupils visited a Synagogue in Bristol this week and were able to see the theory put into practice. The pupils I spoke to have had a great time and really valued the opportunity to see how different faiths and beliefs are lived out in ‘real’ life.
We had the pleasure of welcoming back the Tommy Atkins production this year. Our year 8 pupils were treated to a great, thought provoking performance around relationships and anti-bullying.

Not to be out done year 5 had a visit from the inspirational Clive Pig who lead a Victorian themed story telling and workshop session to support their humanities curriculum. Thank you to Taylor Shaw, our catering contractors, for offering a special ‘Victoria Tea Party’ menu to really reinforce the theme being studied.

It was great to see the school come together on Friday to once again support the ‘HOPE - Bright Futures campaign’. Education is the single most important thing a child can have to lift themselves and their families out of poverty and lead a better life. With your support, our goal is to help as many children as possible break the cycle of poverty and build a brighter future (UNICEF January 2017). Our pupils explored this and the educational inequalities found around the globe while having the opportunity to reflect on how fortunate we are here in the UK. Thank you to Mrs Adair, who has been a driving force behind this project.

Finally, well done and congratulations to Lottie (7AMW) on winning three rosettes recently for her horse riding exploits.
Have a great half term. We return on Monday 4th June. Just a reminder that the roof repairs will be underway, the MUGA should be finished within two weeks and our year 8 pupils have their Leavers Photographs on 6th June.

Monday 21st May

Well done to all our wonderful year 6 pupils who took their SATs this week. As I told them before the assessment, whatever their outcomes, I could not be any more proud of their efforts this year. They are a real credit to the school and their teachers and know that they fully deserved their ‘Fun Friday’.

Congratulations to Matilda (8DJ) whose poster has been chosen as the winner of the Lions International Peace Poster Contest 2017-18. Well done to Suzanna and Beth who were awarded 2nd place. The posters are judged on their originality, artistic merit and portrayal of the theme, which this 30th Anniversary Year was “The Future of Peace”.Matilda went on to achieve ‘Highly Commended’ in the South West District level of the contest and was awarded another prize at the Lions District Convention at Croyde Bay. Her poster will be included in an exhibition at Exeter Guildhall on 14th July during the Lord Mayor’s Coffee Morning.

This weekend also showcased the talent from Hugh Sexey on the national stage. Our year 5 & 6 girls' football team travelled to Coventry this Saturday to represent school in the Danone Nations Cup. Qualifying as one of the South West representatives, they made the long journey in glorious sunshine to the Ricoh Arena and played in 3 really competitive games, drawing the first two and unfortunately suffering a 3-0 defeat against a very well organised Ponteland Community Middle School team from Northumberland. Well done girls and a huge thank you to Mrs Allen for taking the time to support this tournament.

Finally, congratulations and well done to Poppy McGhee. As you may remember from my previous blogs Poppy is a fantastic musician and on Saturday she represented the South West at the Rotary Club Young Musician competition in Edinburgh. I am absolutely delighted to report that from the 8000 entries Poppy came back to school on Monday will 2nd place overall. This is a truly remarkable achievement. We are not surprised by this accolade and know that Poppy will go on to become a very special musician.

Friday 11th May

I had the real honour and privilege to collect on behalf of Poppy McGhee 8JNB the ‘Pride of Somerset Rotary International Sandy Padgett Youth Award’ on Friday evening. The event hosted by The Rotary Club of Taunton and supported by BBC Somerset and the Somerset County Gazette was truly inspirational and humbling as Young people from across Somerset were recognised for their outstanding contributions. Poppy, has qualified to represent the South West at the Rotary National music finals in Edinburgh next week also works tirelessly supporting the Amber Trust, a charity that helps blind or partially sighted children through music was a deserved winner of the top award. Unfortunately, due to other commitments, the Wedmore music festive, Poppy and her mother were unable to accept her award in person. However, we were delighted that Clinton Rogers from BBC Points West was able to surprise Poppy at school and hand deliver her award. Well done Poppy, we are very proud of your achievements and know that this is only the start of your journey.

It was great, as always, to welcome all of feeder First Schools to Hugh Sexey to compete in an Athletics Festival delivered by our fantastic year 8 Sports Leaders. The pupils competed in a range of different track events including an 80m sprint, team relay and hurdles. Once again the pupils had a fabulous time and I am sure are looking forward to one day leading events of their own.

Continuing with the theme of sport it was great to see our Girls and Boys making the most of the dry weather and hosting two cricket tournaments, here at Hugh Sexey. Both teams did really well, with some excellent individual performances supported by great contributions from all members of the team. For more news see the latest news section of the website.

It was also great to watch a few games of tennis before I left work on Friday with Mr McGrath’s year 8 boys taking on a strong Millfield team. At the time of writing the result is unknown but I am sure the boys will let me know on Monday.

Looking at the images and weather in France it looks like our year 7 pupils had a brilliant time and I hope that the crossing home was as smooth as the way over! A huge thank you to the team of dedicated staff who took the time organise and facilitate this wonderful opportunity. I just hope I do not return to work with the usual waft of Goats cheese emanating from the office fridge again!

Finally, work has started on the MUGA and we will put some images of its progress on the latest news section of the website as the project proceed. However, far more importantly, good luck to all our year 6 pupils who will be sitting their SATs next week. I know they will be awesome because they are every day.

Friday 4th May

It is great to finally see some blue skies and watch the pupils run around having fun on the field at morning break and lunchtime. While mentioning running around, congratulations to the boys U12 and U13 football teams who both played in the Mid Somerset Football Final this week. The U12’s played Millfield and Wells Blue winning both games, returning as champions. Not to be outshone the U13’s also played Millfield and in a really exciting and tight game, they needed extra-time to run out 2-1 victors. For more information please visit the ‘Latest News’ section of the school website. Well done to both teams.

On Friday a coach full of excited year 8 pupils ventured to Dorset to visit the Tank museum and returned enthusiastically wanting to share their new facts and experiences as I met them off the bus. As expected they had a great time and really challenged their guide who was blown away with their knowledge and genuine interest in WW1 and WW2 fighting machinery. I know that seeing these cutting-edge engineering feats of their time will be memories they take with them in their studies in the future.

I am delighted to also inform you that AGP will be on site from Tuesday 8th May, as they begin the ground works in preparation for laying the all-weather plastic grass surface. It is hoped that this will be completed in the next 3 weeks and will transform our active play areas and PE curriculum space. The work area is self-contained and will not impact on the pupils current summer provision. We are all very excited and cannot wait for it to be completed.

As mentioned in an earlier Blog we also have planned a refurbishment of the old roof. This is due to start on Monday 21st May. Most of the work will take place on the front aspect of the school roof during term time, again limiting the impact on pupils and the running of the school, with the rest being completed during the summer holidays.

Finally, I hope that our year 7 explorers to France have a wonderful time and a calm ferry crossing. I am sure that Miss Kendall will keep us informed via the latest news section of the website. I hope the forecast is correct for the extended weekend and that we enjoy our own Mediterranean weather.

Friday 27th April

As always it was great to welcome so many parents and carers to the KS3 Parents’ evening this week. It is always nice to share our delight at the progress your children are making with us here at HSMS. I hope you all enjoyed the evenings as much as we did?

We have had another action-packed couple of weeks since my last blog…

Our year 5 pupils had a fantastic day at 'We the Curious', science museum in Bristol. They were treated to an educational workshop about the Earth, the Sun and the moon, followed by an amazing 3D experience in the planetarium where they found out about all the planets in solar system and the future of space travel.What a fantastic start to the new year 5 science topic, Earth and Space.

Meanwhile, our year 8 pupils were truly transfixed during the Young Shakespeare Company’s performance of Romeo and Juliet. It really brought this classic script to life a modern day setting and enhanced their understanding of this classic.

The postponed year 7 trip to parliament finally took place with Mrs Adair leading 30 pupils f to London. The weather, on this occasion, was gorgeous and pupils were able sit in the sunshine to eat lunch before their session.The brilliant tour took in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. They were very fortunate the listen to discussion in both the houses.In the Commons, the discussion was on the topic of increasing funding and signing up for a national data register to improve the medical treatment of Brain Cancer.In the House of the Lords, the discussion was about Britain's involvement in the war in Syria.Our local MP, James Heappey visited HSMS the following day to speak to KS3 about his work and the work of MPs in general.He fielded some great questions (some quite challenging) from our well-informed pupils.

Well done to all our fantastic mathematicians who again took part in the UKMT Junior Maths Challenge. The paper, as always, is a real challenge and if you fancy testing yourself and seeing what our pupils can do just contact the school and we will of course send you a copy to peruse.

Congratulations to Holly, in Year 6, who was crowned 2018 Burnham Carnival Princess. She had to complete an application form and then answer questions from a panel of judges and the audience at the presentation show, which was held at The Princess Hall. Well done, Holly and enjoy Carnival!

Thanks to the first schools for attending our dance festival. Our enthusiastic and very able year 8 sports leaders did a superb job of guiding the year 4 and 5 dancers, and this culminated in 6 wonderful dance pieces at the end.

Finally, huge congratulations to our Girl's Under 11's Football Team on securing a place in the National Cup Finals. Competing in the South West Regional Football Finals at Keynsham, representing Somerset, they reached the final against 10 other county winners.

By reaching the final Hugh Sexey's (Somerset) will be joining The Park Primary School (Gloucestershire) at either Sheffield Wednesday FC (Hillsborough) or Coventry FC (Ricoh Stadium) for the Nationals Finals on 19th May. They should be very proud of their achievement and I am sure they are tremendously excited about this unique opportunity.

Friday 13th April

It was great to safely welcome back our pupils and staff after a rather damp Easter break, and offer a special welcome back to Miss Lacy who re-joins our year 6 team after the retirement of Mrs Collett. The weather this week has not really signalled the beginning of the summer term but here we are! The summer term is always a strange one with really mixed emotions. Our year 6 pupils have 19 school days until their SATs, our new cohort of pupils and parents for September find out if they have a place us with next week and our year 8 pupils have only 64 school days until they leave Hugh Sexey for new and exciting challenges. It really is a roller coaster of emotions.

Thanks to the contributions from our very generous parents/carers who have gifted 1m2 of the all-weather surface and the work done during Sport Relief and MUGA fund raising activities we have reached our target amount. We are now working with APG to finalise a start date for construction and will of course let you know when this will begin. We also received fantastic news over the Easter break from the Education & Skills Funding Agency. As an Academy, we were able to bid for support from the Government’s ‘Condition Improvement Fund’ and I am delighted to inform you that we have received a significant sum of money to future proof our magnificent ‘old’ school building with extensive refurbishment of the pitched and flat roofs. Again, once the start date is known we will inform you if any adaptations to our access will have to be made once work begins on site.

Congratulations to Tom (8JNB) and Will (5AT) who both took part in a fencing competition at Millfield over the Easter holidays. Tom competed in Épée and Will in foil. Both came first in their age group. What a fantastic achievement- well done boys.

It has been a very active week for our year 7 netball team. The Mendip tournament, which should have been held last term but was postponed due to the snow was re- scheduled this week and took place at Oakfield School in Frome on Tuesday 10th April. Our girls competed brilliantly finishing the tournament as runners up. This resulted in them playing again a couple of days later at the County finals, hosted at Millfield. The girls again competed extremely well, losing out on this occasion to some very strong opposition. I know that it was a fantastic experience and Mrs Allen was delighted with their team work and spirit. Well done girls.

To cap off the sporting week our Girls football team travelled to Gordano to play in the last 16 of the National English School Football Tournament on Friday. Against a very powerful and well organised team we, on this occasion, were unable to match their skill in front of goal and were defeated, ending this magnificent run. Well done girls this was a truly remarkable cup run and you still have a chance to show them what you are capable of in the county final at Street Football Club.

Another talented group of girls, Georgina, Bryher, and Chloe (6MJ) all achieved Distinction at grade 3 in their recent Music Theatre exams. Rebecca (6MJ) took her grade 4 exam, and she also achieved a Distinction; fabulous achievement girls, keep up the excellent work.

We hope that the sun comes out and we can open the field at lunch time and look forward to seeing our Key Stage 3 parents and carers at the Subject Evening on the 23 and 24 April.

Wednesday 21st March

Wow! For those parents and carers who have been fortunate enough to experience the beguiling skills of Poppy it will come as no surprise to report that Poppy won the regional final of the Rotary Club Young Musician competition and is now preparing for the national final in Edinburgh on the 20th May. From a pool of over 8,000 children from across the country, Poppy has been shortlisted to become one of the final 6 competing for this prestigious accolade. Best of luck, I know that you will send shivers down their spines.

Last week saw the final cross-country race of the season hosted by Tor Leisure in Glastonbury. The whole team have competed well throughout the season and pushed each other to their limits. The end of season award ceremony saw Finley, who won every race, win the Year 5 & 6 individual boys trophy, while Nathan, after another strong performance, achieved the third place trophy. To cap the season our boys team were then also announced as overall winners (out of 25 schools). For more information and to check out the proud athletes please check the latest news section of the school website.

The PE department and pupils have been extremely busy this week, not only with Sport relief events and activities but also the House football and netball matches. To find out which houses finished where and if the current house teams are upholding your historical traditions see the website latest news section. Finally, on the sporting front well done to both our year 7 boys who played Fairlands and Mark College and our mixed year 7 & 8 girls rugby teams who competed in the Somerset School Rugby Festival at Yeovil RFC. Well done everyone!

Miss Kendall was delighted at the parental turn out for the Normandy information evening last week. We hope that all your questions were answered and that you are as excited as my colleagues are at the prospect of a wonderful few days with your children in France. I do know that they are praying for a really calm ferry crossing.

This week our Key stage 3 parents and carers should be receiving the end of term report and can share our delight at the progress your children are making. They really do deserve the praise that they receive because their attitude and application day after day is fantastic. We hope to see you on the 23rd or 24th April to discuss in more detail how brilliantly they are doing, or what they might need to do to maximise their potential.

Just a quick reminder that our pupils can return after the Easter break in their summer uniform, the collared Polo Shirt with our school logo. Obviously, pupils can continue to wear their Shirt and tie if the chose as this is perfectly acceptable.

Finally, two last points. Firstly, a huge thank you to all those Parents/Carers/Grandparents and family members who have generously gifted 1m2 to the cost of the MUGA. With your help we are almost at our target amount. It is not too late to contribute the £35 via Parentpay or with a cheque made payable to Hugh Sexey Church of England Middle School. This contribution will enhance our facility and bring that much needed all weather space for years to come. I have been blown away with the enthusiasm and effort that so many of our pupils have demonstrated over the last week and the momentum keeps growing. It has certainly helped me with my personal challenge. Just 15K to run on Thursday and Friday!

Secondly, we are delighted and saddened to say thank you, goodbye and good luck to several colleagues who have contributed to making this a great place to work and learn. Congratulations and good luck to Mr Broad, who is leaving us after Easter to take up a Deputy Headteacher role in Frome at Selwood Academy. Thank you, Mrs Collett, who has decided, after giving her heart and soul to Hugh Sexey, to put her feet up and throw away her green marking pens and spend some quality time with her own family. Congratulations to Mrs Palmer, who has secured a role with Somerset County Council after years of engendering a real passion for reading in the school Learning Resource Centre. Thank you and best wishes to Mrs Wicks who has supported hundreds of pupils in developing their confidence in mathematics and finally, Miss Warboys, who has ensured the school looks like new each day, as we arrive at school in the morning and then taken care of our pupils in their high spirited active play at lunchtime. On behalf of the pupils, Governors and all your colleagues- our thanks and best wishes.

We return to school on Monday 9th April, I hope for glorious sunshine and clear blue skies. Well, one can hope…

Friday 9th March

It was great to see so many pupils and staff embracing our belated World Book day. To see what characters our pupils brought to life, see our Latest news section of the website and see if you can guess their favourite literary inspirations. Thank you to Mrs Palmer and all those pupils who have supported the Travelling book fair and found magical stories in which to let their imagination run wild.

Well done and congratulations to our year 5 and year 6 ‘High Five’ netball squads who competed in a Mendip area competition this week. Our year 5 team, facing pupils a year older, played fantastically well and had a brilliant experience which I am sure has only inspired them to train and practise harder, while our year 6 team ran out winners. We then hosted teams from Fairlands and again showed that all the hard work that they have been putting in is paying dividends. Keep up the good work, girls.

Finally, a massive thank you to those parents/carers who have already gifted the school 1m2 towards our ambitious MUGA project. The staff, Governors and most of all pupils are extremely grateful. Over the next two weeks we will be arranging sponsored events and Zumba sessions to support Sports Relief and raise funds to make the MUGA a reality.

Friday 2nd March

I wasn’t expecting that on the first day of March.

Thank you to all our parents and carers who made alternative arrangements due to our forced closure this week because of the very surprising and rather challenging weather. I hope that you all had a safe but fun few days hosting your very own winter Olympics!

It was great to see so many of our Key Stage 2 parents and carers at the Parents’ evening on Monday and Tuesday this week. I hope that you had the chance to celebrate the great progress that your children are making with his/her teacher. We really are blessed with brilliant children and fantastic teachers here at Hugh Sexey and I hope you got a flavour of this.

We have arranged for the postponed ‘World Book Day’ on Thursday to take place on Monday 5th March so please don’t forget those book character costumes. For those choosing to come in Mufti can I remind you that a £1 contribution will be gratefully received by the library.

Congratulations to the members of the school equestrian team who competed at the NSEA Grassroots showjumping competition at Millfield’s indoor arena last weekend. Poppy Scriven completed two beautiful clear rounds, while the team of Asha Leavey, Nelly Lee and Jonny Lee competed in the 60cm and 70cm class and all rode brilliantly to take team 1st place. This is a fantastic result and means that the Hugh Sexey team have now qualified for the national schools championships! I hope the ponies received an extra carrot for their efforts too.

On the theme of success our U12’s girls football team hosted Mounts Bay Academy from Penzance in the 5th round of the English School Football competition. In what proved to be a really tough test of the girl’s ability, determination and team spirit they ran out victorious against a very strong Cornish side. For more details about the game please visit the latest news section of the school website. Good luck in the next round girls, where ever this may be.

Finally, we had 15 brave souls from year 5 and 6 take part in the penultimate race of the Mendip schools cross-country season. Finley's amazing efforts continued with another first meaning he has won every race so far this season, while Katie (year 6) also achieved a very creditable top five finish. A great team effort was rewarded with 4th place overall for the girls (out of 20 schools) and 2nd (out of 25 schools) for the boys. The final race of the season will be on 20th March.

I hope next week is a little calmer and normal…

Friday 23th February

As the first week of this half term finishes it is great to reflect on the great achievements of our pupils. Well done to our year7 and 8 Cross-country runners who took part in Area championships. With nearly 300 competitors from across the county, there were impressive top 15 placings for Tom, Chloe and Nathan. In what will be their final cross-country event for the school, we were delighted to see both Hannah and Henry in the top five again.

Congratulations to Poppy McGhee (8JNB) who was the overall winner of the Rotary musician competition this year. Her second piece called ‘The Hot Canary’ really was a real show stopper. Poppy now goes through to the next round, which includes finalists from Somerset and parts of Dorset and Wiltshire on Sunday, 11th March. Good luck Poppy.

Still with the Rotary Club, congratulations to Jessica Edmonstone (8EF) who won the Intermediate Writing competition and came runner up in the District round. This is a fantastic achievement, only losing out to the Senior winner from Kings of Wessex, who is in Yr12. We also had fabulous entries from Freddie (Yr7) who was runner up in the Intermediate category, Chloe Nicolaides (Yr6) who was runner up in the Junior category and Olivia Pearce (Yr6) who won the Junior category.

Many congratulations to Innes Oliver (7IA). Innes recently passed her grade 3 and 4 in ballet with distinction. We are delighted for Innes and hope that she is proud of her achievement.

Finally, our Under 13s sevens Rugby squad travelled to Millfield to play their U13s 1st team. They played 6 games, 5 minutes each way to prepare for the upcoming Rosslyn Park tournament.

Millfield won 4 games and Hugh Sexey won 2. Well done to all the boys that took part. We all wish you all the very best of luck for the Rosslyn Park 7s tournament which is being held on Monday 19th March.

World book day this year is Thursday 1st March. I hope that our pupils get into the spirit of the day and become immersed in the world of their favourite book character. For those less adventurous, pupils can pay £1 to come to school in Mufti with all contributions supporting the library.

Friday 10th February

It was great to finish the term on Friday with over 200 Middle School Teachers meeting at Maiden Beech Academy, in Crewkerne, for our joint inset day. We had some inspirational key note speakers and were able to discuss, with like minded colleagues, educational issues and share best practice in fantastic workshops.

For those of you lucky enough to join us on Wednesday and Thursday at our year 8 production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I did. The work that our pupils, whether performing or those helping with technical and costume and make up, was phenomenal. They should be extremely proud of their personal and collective achievement. I would also like to thank my colleagues who also put in hours of their own time to help this happen and provide our pupils with memories that will stay with them for life.

The end of this half term also signals a goodbye and thank you to Miss O’Brien and Mr Barrett. They have finished their placement with us in MFL and science respectively, and we wish them well in the next stage of their teacher training. We hope that they will take fond memories of Hugh Sexey with them and find jobs in this wonderful profession.

Have a great ½ term and we look forward to seeing all our pupils return safely on Monday 19th February, and all our KS2 parents and carers at the Parents’ Evening on Monday 26th or Tuesday 27th February.

Monday 5th February

As always it was great to see so many of our year 8 Parents and Carers at Kings of Wessex on Wednesday at the Key Stage 4 options evening. There was a genuine buzz of excitement as children and parents talked about what courses they were considering for September. Thank you to all the fantastic ambassadors and staff at Kings who freely gave up their time to help us find our way around the site and answering all our option questions. Option forms are due back to Kings of Wessex no later than Friday 9th February. I am visiting the school on Thursday afternoon and am happy to take the completed forms down on your behalf it that helps.

Year 7 were visited, to support their work on the Middle ages in humanities, by local author Michael Malaghan. His latest book ‘French Tapestry’ explores the abrupt end to the Bayeux Tapestry and stimulated some wonderful conversations about this period of history.

Well done to our year 8 girls who took their HPV injections in their stride and thank you to our colleagues and local school nurses who very efficiently and sensitively managed the process.

Congratulations to the Celts who raised, through their cake sale and Mufti day, over £665. A cheque will be made out to the very grateful ‘Water Aid’ Charity. I am sure that this contribution will go a long way to positively impact the lives of those less fortunate than us.

On a sporting note, well done to our year 7 and year 8 netball teams who travelled to St Dunstans to play in a friendly tournament against St Dunstans, Selwood Academy and Oakfield Academy. Both teams played some excellent fast passing and accurate shooting netball and returned victorious. For more details please see our latest news section of the website. Meanwhile our year 8 boys travelled to Kings College, Taunton. After a slow start and going a goal down, they found their rhythm and started to dominate the game. A combination of great team work and fantastic finishing resulted in the boys travelling back up the M5, after a lovely tea, 5-1 winners. Well done. Finally, despite the cold wet weather our U13 cricketers ventured to Bridgwater to play Haygrove and Chilton in the School’s indoor cup. Unfortunately for the team despite beating Chilton, Haygrove proved a little more consistent in their work and ran out winners. We wish them well in the next stage of the competition.

Just a reminder that we are closed to pupils on Friday 9th February as we are meeting with all our other Middle School colleagues at Maiden Beech for a joint in-service training day. However, I hope to see many of you on Wednesday or Thursday at the year 8 production of Beauty and the Beast.

Have a great ½ term

Friday 26th January

I cannot believe that we have already reached the last Friday in January but here we are. As another action-packed week comes to an end, although I know that the year 8 cast and production team have a long rehearsal day planned for Sunday, so they have some way to go yet, for the rest of us it offers some time to reflect on the busy start to the year.

This week our year 5 pupils and staff had a great day at Noah’s Ark Farm while our year 8 pupils had, as part of our safeguarding provision, their session with the Somerset Road Safety Team. Speaking to some of the pupils this was a really powerful presentation and a timely reminder of what they should do to keep themselves visible and safe.

This week I had the pleasure of visiting East Brent, along with other Wessex Learning Trust staff to look at their mathematical provision and get a wonderful insight into what our pupils are exposed to before arriving here at Hugh Sexey. It was a really fantastic morning and thank you to Mrs Robertson and her staff and pupils who made us all feel very welcome.

As always, we had some great extra-curricular activities going on this week including a year 8 football fixture against Crispin and a year 7 indoor cricket festival against Chilton Trinity and Haygrove school. Both teams performed really well and more importantly played with great spirit and sportsmanship. For more details please see the latest news section of the website. We also hosted a fantastic Gymnastics festival for our partner First Schools. This was organised and run brilliantly by a group of our year 8 sports leaders. Well done to all those involved, as always you are a credit to the school and can be proud of your commitment and motivation. The First schools had a fabulous time.

Key events next week include the Kings of Wessex Key Stage 4 options information evening on Wednesday 31st at 6.00pm. To kick start this process for the pupils we have a visit on Monday morning from their Deputy Headteacher, Mr Edwards, to talk to the pupils about the process and next steps. We also have a ‘Mufti-day’ on Friday 2nd February in support of the chosen House Charity ‘Water Aid’. Squeezed between these events we have a local author talking to our year 7 pupils about his latest book which is based on the Bayeux Tapestry and supports their current Humanities topic and HPV vaccination for our year 8 girls.

Finally, as you will be aware one of our pupils tragically lost her mother in a road traffic accident last week and our thoughts and prayers are with her and her family. They have thanked our school community for our support and asked that we continue to recognise their needs for privacy and peaceful reflection at this difficult time. Thank you for this in advance.

I look forward to seeing many of you on Wednesday evening.

Friday 19th January

As always it was great to see our KS3 parents and carers at this week’s Parents’ evening and thank you for making the effort to join us. I hope that you found the feedback useful and were able to celebrate with us the great progress that your children are making.

At the time of writing my Blog last week our Year 6 girls football squad were busy competing in the Football County Finals at Strode College, playing against the area winners around our region. During the tournament the girls played 5 games. They won 4 and drew 1, which was enough to win the group and progress through to the Semi Final. HSMS played Trinity School and won a very competitive game 1-0 and faced Portishead School in to the final. This game ended in 1-1 draw and went into extra time. At the end of extra time the score was still 1-1, so the game was decided by the dreaded penalty shootout. Thanks to some excellent goal keeping and cool finishing HSMS won the tournament and go on to represent Somerset in the regional finals. Well done on this fantastic achievement girls.

This week has seen our year 6 pupils mesmerised by Clive Pig who delivered, over two days, inspirational workshops on the Mayans as part of this terms key topic. The pupils were given a wonderful insight into their beliefs and culture in a fun interactive way. I am sure that this has really stimulated our pupils interest in this ancient civilisation. Keeping our year 6 pupils on their toes we have also had a visit from Zoolab this week again bringing science to life.

As the year 8 production of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th February looms ever closer, the cast and crew are working extremely hard to ensure that you will be blown away by their adaptation of this Disney classic. Tickets are available via ‘Parentpay’ so please book your seat to avoid disappointment.

Well done to our U13 Football team who played Crispin this week in a friendly and ran out 2-0 winners. Keep up the good work.

Finally, looking forward our year 5 pupils are visiting Noah’s Ark Farm Zoo next week and as part of our safeguarding curriculum we have another visit from the Somerset Road Safety team who this time will be educating our year 8 pupils on keeping safe on the highways. Parents and carers of year 8 pupils remember it is the KS4 options information evening at Kings of Wessex on Wednesday 31st January. There will be two information talks at 6.00pm or 7.00pm followed by curriculum talks in the classrooms. See you there.

Friday 12th January 2018

Welcome back and I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to a brilliant New Year. We have started as we finished the year with wonderful events on offer for our pupils. A group of our Year 7 pupils enjoyed a joint Science and Humanities trip to Hinkley B Power Station. Here they learnt more about nuclear power generation, and considered how future demands for power in the UK will be met. The pupils had a great talk from the EDF education officer, before participating in a tour of the facility. Our pupils were very excited to learn about the great variety of jobs that Hinkley C will create.

Our Year 5 and 6 pupils have been involved in a great road safety workshop this week delivered by Somerset Road Safety Officers. We hope that the important and very practical messages shared help to educate our pupils in avoiding the dangers our roads provide. Year 7 and 8 will have a workshop next week.

If you visit the school website and look at the latest news section you will see the fruits of your generous donations to our partner school in Jolaurabi, Kenya. If you recall last summer, many of our HSMS pupils generously donated their used school shoes which they had outgrown. Today was the very special day, when charity workers from 'Educate the Kids' travelled to Kenya, to fit and distribute shoes for the children as they start their new school year. Most the children attending the sponsored school are so poor that their families would never be able to afford a pair of shoes. These children often walk a long way from rural villages to get an education, and without shoes, risk injury and disease which would force them to be absent from school. The children are most grateful for your generosity.

Congratulations to the HSMS Equestrian Team who competed in the National School Equestrian Association Eventers Challenge on Saturday 7th January at Kings Sedgemoor. Maddy Ross rode her pony, Bond and Maisey Mitchell rode her new pony, Zaria. They had to jump around a very long and complex course made up of a mixture of show jumps and cross-country fences. Well done to both the riders and ponies representing HSMS so brilliantly.

Congratulations and best wishes also to Ms Taylor who has returned to us this year Mrs Adair! We all wish you much happiness and joy.

Finally, we look forward to seeing those KS3 Parents and carers who will be visiting us on Monday and Tuesday next week at our Parents’ evening and I hope to see lots of our Year 8 parents at the Kings of Wessex options evening on Wednesday 31st January.

Friday 15th December

What a fabulous week! Firstly, our 154 year 5 pupils and staff put on a brilliant Christmas production of ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’. I am always amazed at the number of fantastic and confident performers we have and how my team manage to bring them all together to deliver a great show. Well done everyone, it was truly inspiring. Whilst on the theme of inspiring I was lucky enough to join a packed congregation at Wells Cathedral to watch our joint carol service with Fairlands and Kings of Wessex. The quality of singing, reading and musical performance was breath-taking. I was in awe of the talent and ability on show and feel blessed that we have pupils of this calibre within the Cheddar Valley. The Splendour of the cathedral was matched by the individuals who graced it. Well done to all the staff and pupils who made this a really special afternoon. Local residents were merrily entertained by our year 8 pupils who had a brilliant afternoon at Blackford Cafe. The pupils performed a mixture of festive popular songs and traditional Carols. Thank you to Mrs Harrison and the pupils for giving their time so generously.

Back at school our year 7pupils worked extremely hard to once again put on the DT Christmas Fayre. The quality of the products that they had made to sell for charity was tremendous, while Sir Alan Sugar would have been proud of the selling techniques demonstrated by our young entrepreneurs.

Well done to our U12 girls football team who beat Kings Hall 4-1 in the Somerset cup competition and followed this up with a comprehensive victory over Crispin in the English Schools national cup. Commiserations to our U12 boys football team who were well beaten by a very strong Ivybridge team in the English Schools National Knockout Cup. I am sure that our team learnt a lot during the game and I hope this leads to another great cup run next year.

As we enter the last week and despite everyone being tired after a long hard term the pupils still have their year group Christmas dinner, carol service at Holy Trinity on Wednesday and Christmas Mufti day on Thursday to look forward to.

Finally, best wishes and have a wonderful festive break and Christmas. We look forward to seeing you all in 2018. Pupils are back with us on Monday 8th January.

Monday 11th December

Another fun week has passed in the blink of an eye. Well done and thank you to Mrs Harrison and Freya, Rebecca, Hattie, Matty and Indah, who sang their hearts out at the Charlton Children’s Hospice Christmas concert at Wedmore Methodist church last week. They performed two delightful songs, one acapella ‘I See the Holly’ and ‘Love Shone Down’ with perfection. I am sure the audience really appreciated your time and effort. Staying with music on Thursday, Poppy, Millie Jo, Rosie, Rosie and Matilda busked in the school playground, playing Christmas carols and ‘Spring’ from Vivaldi. They were raising money for the Amber Trust, a charity that helps blind or partially sighted children through music. Well done girls it was a pleasure to hear you perform for this worthy cause. To see them in action please visit our latest news section of the website.

I am delighted to announce that Chris McKinley, our site manager, was invited to attend the ‘Believe Somerset Awards Ceremony’, at the Haynes Motor Museum. Chris, was one of three finalists nominated for ‘mentor of the year’. The nomination was put forward highlighting and recognising the work Chris has done to support young people beyond his core role, since he started at HSMS in 1996. Well done, Chris and keep up the good work.

Our pupils all had a day away from their ‘normal’ curriculum to take part in the school challenge day. Each year group spent the day working on a key theme, getting the chance to really explore and deepen their understanding of that particular subject material. Thanks to all our guest speakers and staff who made this a really enjoyable and informative day.

Thanks also to the PTA who organised a brilliant Christmas Disco on Thursday. We had over 275 very excited children who danced and knee slid the night away. With contributions for the event and refreshment sales the PTA raised over £1500! Great effort and well done everyone.

Thanks to my colleagues who took our year 8 cast to Strode college to watch Beauty and the Beast on Friday. I am sure it has given our pupils a great insight into the production and I am sure that they will feel more confident as they rehearse for their performance of the same show. I can’t wait until February to see our production.

Finally, good luck to our year 5 pupils and staff who have been working really hard ‘Gimme Gimme Gimme’. Dress rehearsal is today in front of our year 8, followed by three more performances. I know that it will be fantastic as they are an amazing set of young people. Please don’t ‘Break a leg!’

Monday 4th December 2017

December already and still so much to do! Congratulations to Matilda, 8DJ, who was selected as the winner of this year’s themed ‘The future of peace’ Lions International Peace Poster Competition. Her work is proudly displayed on the ‘Latest News’ section of our website. Well done also to Suzanna 8EF and Beth 8RT who were runners up.

Thank you to Ms Taylor and Mr Bullock who arranged a brilliant Year 8 Slavery workshop last week. These sessions with a guest expert and real artefacts really bring history to life and stimulate our pupils thinking and understanding of the hardships faced.

Well done to our year 7 and 8 boys rugby teams who welcomed Oakfield to HSMS last week. The teams have been working very hard in training and in their games lessons and it was wonderful to see these skills put effectively into the game situation. Keep up the good work boys. Not to be outshone our year 6 Hockey team played Fairlands and gave a great performance running out 2-0 winners, again well done girls and good luck in your next game.

Huge congratulations to Mr Gareth Waterfield for his nomination in the unsung hero's category of the BBC sports personality of the year awards. Gareth is a valued member of the PE team at Hugh Sexey and we all wish him well at the awards evening.

Finally, a quick reminder of the 'Everything is Awesome' PTA School Disco at 6-8pm on Thursday 7th December. To book a place at this event please see the latest news section of our website.

Friday 24th November

On Monday it was great to invite two former pupils, Anna Littlewood-Hillsdon and Alex Cramp, to launch their World War One Battlefield Tour Legacy Project to our governing body. The pupils and Ms Taylor visited the Western Front in November, 2016, as part of a 100 year anniversary project supported by the Government. One of the conditions of the trip was to create a lasting, informative memory of their experience. We have a wonderful interactive presentation that fulfils that brief. It was fantastic listening to the pupils talk with such passion and compassion about the dreadful loss of life during this conflict. Well done Anna and Alex.

It has been another really busy sporting week, despite the weather. Congratulations to all our pupils who competed in the House rugby and hockey matches, these results can be seen on the latest news section of the website and thank you to my colleagues who worked hard to make them happen. We also had success against Millfield Preparatory School in the girls U12 football and against Fairlands in the U13 final of the Mendip area hockey tournament. Good luck in the next round and Well done!

Finally, thank you to our sports leaders and First schools who joined us on Thursday evening for a festival of football. It was great to see, well just make out in the fading light, so many enthusiastic and sporting footballers. Well done to all that contributed to a great afternoon of sport.

Monday 20th November

This week we had a surprise visit from Pudsey Bear. This coincided with our weekly theme of Charity and obviously the national Children in Need events this week. The pupils and Pudsey were really excited, to the point of exhaustion for poor Pudsey. Thank you to all our pupils and staff who raised £717.43, which will hopefully help some of those charities showcased on Friday evening. We know that it truly makes a difference to those in need. Remaining with charitable events, our Shoebox Appeal has been hugely successful thanks to the overwhelming generosity of the parents, carers and pupils of Hugh Sexey Middle School. A group of hard-working year 8 pupils gave up their lunchtimes to help wrap boxes, sort donations and allocate presents. I am sure that the recipients of the gifts will be truly delighted by your kindness.

As always, the travelling book fair was a great success. In total over 350 books were sold, to the value of £1,588. I am sure that those purchases will bring hours of enjoyment and escapism. The Library has been given a voucher for £892 worth of books, which can be redeemed with Scholastic books

Congratulations to two members of the school equestrian team who competed at the National Schools Equestrian Association County Showjumping Championships on Sunday. Maddy Ross competed in two classes on her pony Bond, and Asha Leavey competed on her pony Tilly. Both girls performed brilliantly to get clear rounds. For some impressive action shots please visit the latest news section of the website.

Many congratulations also to Sam Tucker and Lewis Richards for being selected for the Somerset district cricket squad. Both boys have been working very hard in all areas and their selection is a result of their hard work and enthusiasm.

Our girls football team were drawn to play an away fixture in the 2nd Round of the ESFA National cup competition, this time playing away to Kings Hall in Taunton. Both teams played some exciting football, our girls were fantastic and they thoroughly deserved the 3-0 win. Good luck in the next round!

Good luck to all those pupils taking part in the Inter House competitions this week, try your best but most importantly enjoy the events.

Monday 13th November

As always it was great to meet so many of you at our Year 6 Parents’ evening on Monday. I hope that you found the opportunity to meet your child’s key teacher as rewarding as my colleagues who met you felt. I hope you also took the time to look through your child's exercise book and see the wonderful work that they have already completed. I am fortunate to speak to lots of very proud children who come to life bursting with pride when they have the chance to share with me the progress that they have made.

Thank you also to small core of Parents who attended the PTA meeting on Wednesday. I am sure that with your support we can create an additional all-weather active play area that will improve our outdoor winter facilities and allow more space for our pupils to run around and play, elevating their heart rate and flooding the brain with oxygen ready for the afternoon curriculum demands. I am sure that the PTA would welcome additional members but would also be grateful if you could use the school's link to ‘Giving Machine’ which means we receive a donation from the total of your spend. Sites include Amazon, ebay, John Lewis, Waitrose, Dorothy Perkins, M&S, Staples, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Next and 240 more.

On Friday 10th November Hugh Sexey Church of England Middle School held its Remembrance Day service which has become a very special and poignant day here at our school. Our children began the day with an informative and moving assembly on the theme "They Live On". The assembly was followed by a service of reflection on our school playground, where children from each tutor group were called to lay a wreath at the foot of our school cenotaph; each wreath represented a different battle fought in the Great War. The wreath laying was accompanied by some wonderful violin music played expertly by Poppy McGhee, 8JNB. The cadets paraded our WW1 banner around the cenotaph, and were joined by the Royal British Legion standard bearers. We were also honoured to welcome retired servicemen and women from the Mark, Wedmore and Cheddar branches of the Royal British Legion.

It has been a busy and successful sporting week with news that Will Creaser (7AMW) and Oliver Richards (7IA) have been selected for the Somerset cricket squad. Also, many congratulations to Finley Bendle in 5EC, who has been selected to train with Somerset Cricket this winter with the intention of being selected for the summer tournaments and festivals. In cross-country, another sterling effort by our runners from Years 5 and 6 in race two of five was rewarded at Collett Park in Shepton Mallet. They had to brave proper cross-country conditions (cold and wet) making the course very muddy and slippery in places. Finley Halford 6SB, was first again out of 116 runners and there were top 10 finishes too for Katie, Nathan and Charlie. The girls team came a credible 6th out of 19 schools, whilst the boys team were 1st again (out of the 23 schools) beating Millfield by the finest of margins.

Not to be out done our Girls Football squad competed in the EFL Girls Cup at Exeter University on Friday 10th November, in a 6 a side tournament. We entered two teams in this very strong event and were delighted with their performances and progress during the tournament. After a brilliant team effort we came back as 3rd placed team after narrowly losing out on penalties in the semi-final. Check out the latest news section of the website to get more details.

For the first time since I arrived we managed to get a local 7- a- side rugby fixture against our neighbours Mark College. We used this opportunity to give debuts to a lot of boys who have regularly attended training. It was a fabulous afternoon of rugby, played in great spirit demonstrating exemplary sportsmanship. Hopefully we can repeat this fixture soon.

Well done to Charlotte King, Katie Board, Ava Robinson, Gracie Walsh Smith and Hattie Burbedge in year 7 for organising and running a Key stage 2 dance club. The girls are passionate about all forms of dance and wanted to share this with our pupils. The club runs every Wednesday lunchtime and the girls work very hard to plan fun and challenging sessions.

On an individual level, congratulations to Caitlin McDonnell, 7GDA, who was awarded most promising newcomer at Durley sailing club. Caitlin, has been sailing for almost a year and the award is a tribute to her hard work. The sailing club is part of the Somerset youth and community association. Well done on this fantastic achievement.

And finally, we have the Travelling Book Fair in School from Thursday 9th to Thursday 16 November 2017 - all our pupils will have the opportunity to view and buy books priced from £2. We hope that you will be able to support and fuel your child’s passion and thirst for reading but as an additional bonus every book sold gives the school commission to buy new books for the School Library.

Oh… Please be aware that it is that time of year when Pudsey springs into action and we will of course be supporting this charity with a Mufti day on Friday. We would ask for a minimum donation of a pound to wear what you like. Pudsey spots and colours would be welcome.

Friday 3rd November

Welcome back after a well-deserved ½ term break. I hope that you all had a restful and enjoyable time. We have a very busy 8 weeks coming up with excitement levels reaching fever pitch as Christmas moves ever closer.

Apologies to our Year 6 Girls as I missed their wonderful achievement in the last week of last ½ term. They competed in the area U11 Primary Girls Football Tournament. Playing 4 other teams at Strode College they grew in confidence as the tournament progressed winning all of their games and qualifying to represent the area in the County tournament later this term.

We also had success last week in the Year 6 Indoor Athletics Competition held at Wells Cathedral School. The event included: running (relays, hurdles, running over obstacles), throwing (javelin and power ball throw), and jumping (standing jump, speed bounce, triple jump). Well done to all those athletes who represented HSMS.

Congratulations to Emily Smith (6AF) who is through to the schools National Judo Championships after securing a Silver medal in the recent Regional Championships. Emily is a member of the Cheddar Judo Club and is a member of the Somerset Judo squad. Best of luck in the next competition, Emily.

Whilst celebrating personal achievements, well done to Nathan Kemp 6MJ, who has been selected to represent Somerset in cricket. Your hard work and practise has been rewarded.

Meanwhile in school, our Year 8’s have been creating some fantastic pieces of homework for their Gothic Horror project including creepy cakes, monstrous models and petrifying pictures of their Gothic settings. Their efforts have been really impressive and a sample can be seen on the latest news section of the website.

Finally, I look forward to seeing our Year 6 Parent’s and carers on Monday and Tuesday next week as they attend their ‘Parents’ evening.

Friday 20th October 2017

Thank you to all our Staff, Pupils and Parents who have made this a really enjoyable and successful half term. As always it was great to see so many of our Key Stage 3 pupils’ parents and carers at this week’s ‘Tutor’ evening and share with you how they have settled into their new academic year.

The Art department have again arranged a UK landscape photography competition, the standard last year was excellent and I am sure that this year will be a real show case of all our pupils’ talent. The deadline for entries is 10th November. Good luck everyone.

Can I take this opportunity to remind you that pupils are back to school on Tuesday 31st October. Enjoy the half term break.

Monday 16th October 2017

It was great to meet with so many of our Year 5 Parents and Carers last week at the Year 5 Tutor evening. It was fantastic to hear that the transition to HSMS has gone well and that our Year 5’s have settled in well. I hope that you felt reassured and happy once you had the opportunity to look at some of the work that your children have been doing and have a discussion with your tutor. As always please feel free to contact your child’s tutor if you want to share any external successes or have any questions.

Friday saw our first Mufti day of the academic year for our pupils at HSMS. In return for wearing mufti pupils were asked to bring in a tin of canned food to donate to a local food bank. This was a fitting way to end our first half term which focused on Koinonia as our core Christian value. For more information please see our latest news section of the website.

It was brilliant to welcome our First School partners to our Tag Rugby festival, which was again organised and run by our Year 8 sports ambassadors. It was a really good afternoon of high intensity but fun sporting action. Congratulations to all those pupils who took part to make it so successful and of course well done to all our Year 8 ambassadors who once again excelled. Our Latest news section of the website has some wonderful action shots if you would like to see more about this event.

Finally, Congratulation to Innes Oliver (7IA) who successfully entered a piece of artwork she did at school into the National Open Art competition. Her work, called 'What the Bees Sees', was selected to be displayed on the National Open Art online gallery. Well done and keep up the great work, Innes.

Friday 6th October 2017

As another week passes in the blink of an eye another exciting week is set to start. Our House captains did a fantastic job this week leading their respective House assemblies and galvanising their teams. They have demonstrated skills and confidence well beyond their tender years and selected some wonderful charities to support this year. Well done to each House leader who organised and delivered the assembly, I look forward to charting your progress over the coming months.

Our Year 5 pupils and staff enjoyed two magical days on Thursday and Friday this week as they embraced the first of our challenge days. The theme was circus skills and it really was great to listen to all the excitement as the pupils chatted openly about the activities that had inspired them. I am sure the pictures on the website will give you a flavour of what they got up to!

I hope that your child brought home their school photo as these were distributed this week. If you intend on ordering these images please follow the instructions on the packaging.

On the sporting front our U13 girls played at Fairlands in the First round of the ESFA cup. In a very exciting game our determination, skill and team spirit was rewarded with a great victory. Check out the latest news section of the website for more details.

Not to be out done our Year 7 Hockey teams played Wells Blue. With over 50 pupils attending Hockey club it was great to be able to send two teams to represent HSMS. Obviously, their practise is paying off as both teams return with comprehensive victories. Thank you, Mrs Allen, who I know has her hands full on training night!

Next week it will be great to welcome the Parents and carers of Year 5 to their meet the tutor evening and I hope to see lots of our Year 8 Parents and carers at Kings on Wednesday.

Friday 29th September

As the end of the first month in school is reached, I cannot believe how quickly the time has passed. Perhaps it is the busy nature of school life or the fact that it is so much fun that time doesn’t seem relative to the number of days.

It was as usual fantastic to welcome so many prospective parents and carers during our open day and evening. We hope that you found out all that you needed to make a well-informed decision about whether this is the right school for your child. There was a great buzz around the school created by the enthusiasm and passion that our pupils exude. Please feel free to contact the school if you have any questions that cannot be answered on our website. On the theme of transition, an important date for Year 8 Parents and pupils is Wednesday 11th October as Kings of Wessex are holding their Open evening at 1900.

If you look at our latest news section you will see that our Year 6 pupils and teachers had a wonderful time investigating river flow and water treatment at Ashford Reservoir. They learnt about the processes involved in cleaning river water so that it is safe to drink, toured the works and saw where the chemicals are added, how the flocculators work and the different filtration processes used.

We also had over 40 Year 8 pupils extend their understanding of different faiths when they visited a Buddhist centre in Bristol.

On the sporting front, our Year 5 and 6 runners represented HSMS in the Mendip Junior Cross Country League. We are currently first out of 22 schools in the Year 6 Boys event with incredible performances from Finley who won and Nathan in second. We also had very strong performances from Charlie and Ollie who were also in the top 20 out of over 100 runners. Well done to all the squad, keep it up!

As stated last week we had a visit to carry out our Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools. Thank you to those pupils and parents who spent time with the Inspector. We will of course share this report with you when we have it.

Next week our Year 5 pupils will enjoy two activity days developing individual and team work skills through the medium of circus skills. I’m sure that they will have a fun ‘juggling’ all the challenges thrown at them.

Finally, as October nears please can Parents and Carers ensure that our pupils are ‘visible’ as they walk, cycle or wait to be collected by the school bus. The dark mornings and afternoons will soon take hold and we want all our children seen by other road users so that they arrive at school and get home safely.

Friday 22nd September 2017

As always it was great to meet with so many of our Year 6 parents and carers at our briefing on Wednesday evening. We hope that you had the chance to hear what the next academic year holds for your children, how you can support them and us and had the opportunity to ask us any questions. As stated please feel free to contact us if anything else arises.

As you will be aware our school photo company were in on Thursday and your prints are ready for ordering. Thank you to Mrs Thorne who ensured the smooth running of this event and ensured that both the individual and sibling images were captured for posterity.

Congratulations and well done to those pupils who represented Hugh Sexey and competed at Millfield in the first of three KS3 cross country races. It was a great team effort but Hannah 3rd and Henry 1st in their respective races performed extremely well. All that effort is really paying off! Good luck in the next race.

In a fantastic game against Clevedon, our Year 8 football team were unfortunately beaten 2-1. The game was very even with Hugh Sexey creating some great opportunities to score but it turned out to be one of those days when the ‘back of the net’ eluded us. I am sure that this experience will only make the team stronger. Well done and good luck in your next fixture.

Next week we have our SIAMS inspection. This is the external Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools. We look forward to receiving our inspector on Tuesday 26th September and share with him how wonderful our pupils and school is. We will of course share with you the outcomes of this visit. Our Year 6 pupils will also be enjoying their river trips which supports and brings to life the topic they are covering in Humanities. We also have some Year 8 pupils on the Bhuddism Trip to Bristol on Tuesday.

Finally, it is our Open day and evening on Wednesday 27th September. We have tours arranged for those booked in at 09.30 and 14.30 and our evening begins at 1800. I hope that your child has returned their permission slip to show case our school and talk to those parents and children looking to join our school community. The open evening ends at 19.30.

Monday 18th September

The very changeable and disappointing weather has failed to dampen the start to this term. Our Year 5 pupils continue to grow in confidence and seem like they have been part of our community forever, while at the other end of the spectrum it was a shock to many of our Year 8 pupil’s parents and carers that they only had 182 more school days before leaving us and embarking on their next academic adventure. As always it was a delight to host our Year 7 and Year 8 Parents’ briefings this week and I hope that you have a real flavour of what the next year brings and all your questions were answered. If not please contact the school and we will, of course endeavour to resolve this.

Our, now Year 7 pupils, competed in the U11 Wylie Shield cricket final against Minehead Middle School. Ironically, the game was held over to the start of this term due to bad weather last year! The sun again failed to shine so the match was played indoors at Taunton Vale. Despite the disappointment of not being able to play traditional hardball cricket the boys returned victorious retaining the trophy for another year. Well done. Check out the latest news section of the website to see the team clutching their hard earned spoils.

Congratulations and well done to 4 HSMS pupils who rode in the Chatting 100 - a 100 km charity cycle ride on the Isle of Wight. The event was organised by the Chatting family in memory of Ian Chatting who passed away last year. The pupils who took part in the ride included Lewis and Libby Chatting, Hattie 5CE, Jake 6MJ, and Maisy 8RH. It is a truly remarkable achievement and great cause to support.

Well done to Megan, in 8RT, who has had a poem called 'Short Or Tall (Or How The Giraffe Got Its Long Neck)' published in an anthology of children's poetry called Busta Rhyme: Hidden Treasures. Young Writers launch a national writing and poetry competition every year and Megan’s entry was successful and selected for publication in their most recent anthology. A copy can be found in the school Library if you want to be inspired to enter this year!

I look forward to seeing our Year 6 parents and carers on Wednesday at their parents’ briefing and finally just a reminder that we have our school photography company visiting on Thursday 21st September to capture those defining images that will be displayed and shared for decades.

Monday 11th September

‘New beginnings’ is the theme for the start of the new year and I hope that all our pupils, especially those new to the school, have enjoyed their first full week. I am sure that our routines and expectations will become second nature over the coming weeks. I would also like to welcome Mr Drew, who replaces Mr Sage, as our Assistant Headteacher and Mrs Scott who will be working in the Science department this year. I am delighted to share with you that Mrs Baylis became a very proud mother over the summer giving birth to a beautiful daughter. Both are fit and well and learning their own new routines!

As you know I believe in the concept that “What got you here, won’t get you there.” And that every day each child will face new opportunities and challenging learning experiences. I hope that these will be embraced and built upon as they grow cognitively and emotionally. The year 5’s have been told about our mantra and that I did not want to hear any of them saying “I can’t do this”. I wanted a change in their attitude and mind set. I asked that they simply add the word ‘yet’. I believe that we, as a learning community, need to strive to better ourselves daily whether that be lots of tiny steps or one eureka moment. I hope I get the chance to meet you over the next few weeks at the parents briefing meetings.

I am sure that many of our pupils have been busy over the summer but I wanted to congratulate Innes, 7IA, who spent the first week of the summer holidays at the Bristol Ballet Centre in Westbury on Trym, culminating in a performance inspired by 'The Lion King' in Newman Hall. I am sure that Innes had a wonderful experience which pushed her out of her comfort zone but rewarded her beyond her expectations. More details can be found in the latest news section of the website.

I hope to see many of you at our curriculum evenings over the next two weeks when my team will share with you the challenges and opportunities ahead. The first of these is Tuesday 12th at 6.00pm for Year 7.

We also have the school photograph company in school on Thursday 21st September to capture those cherished school portraits!

Finally, just a reminder that the school officially opens at 8.30am, unless you are taking advantage of the ‘Before school club’ and that when collecting pupils by car at the loop we ask that you drive up Wells Way from the B3139 Blackford Road, turn around and then join the queue rather than trying to turn right into the school. We understand that it is busy but this is the best system to get all our parents through without causing a danger on Blackford Road.

Friday 21st July

It has been a really action packed end to the term and academic year. It is always fantastic to sit in the end of year celebration assemblies and be reminded of all the great achievements and fabulous pupils and staff we are blessed to have here at Hugh Sexy.

It is also sad to say goodbye to those who have contributed so much to make the school a great place to work. As you know Mr Sage is leaving to teach Languages at Kings of Wessex, while Mr McNulty is going to teach Key Stage 2 at Millfield. However, there are also a range of people who work tirelessly out of the public eye. Today we said thank you and goodbye to Wendy and Jenny who support children with hearing impairments across the area and here at Hugh Sexey, and Jeff Fear who has stepped down from his role as one of the school governors after many years’ service both here and Mark First School.

It is also sad to see our Year 8 pupils leave us but we recognise that they are ready for the new challenge that their GCSE courses will bring as well as starting a new school. We wish them well and hope that they go on to fulfil their dreams and wishes.

As stated it has been a very busy last few days with Year 8 enjoying the sights and sounds of London as well as squeezing in a Leavers day which included a day at Weston Pier and party back at school. Our Year 7 have also enjoyed a day of fun filled rides with friends at Brean Leisure park to celebrate a year of hard work.

Wednesday saw the House Arts festival with a highly talented selection of pupils performing to the school. This in its self deserves congratulations as it is extremely nerve racking to perform in front of 300 peers! Well done to Vania 6SB, Georgina 5EC, Freya 6MJ and Corey and Jake 5EC who won the overall house competition.

On the sporting front well done to the Year 5 Kwik cricket team who represented Mendip in the Somerset finals day at Clevedon Cricket Club. The team performed exceptionally well but can across some very strong opponents. The Year 6 Kwik cricket team went one step further representing Somerset in the South West regional finals at Clifton College. Once again, the team performed magnificently missing out in a really tight semi-final to finish 3rd. This is a truly remarkable achievement and I hope the players are rightly proud of their performance.

Finally, just a quick reminder that term begins on Tuesday 5th September and we are in full uniform and have a brilliant summer holiday.

Wednesday 12th July

Apologies for the late blog but it seems as we move closer to the end of term the pace and number of fantastic events and achievements just keep coming. I know that we are nearly at the end of another brilliant year because despite the soring temperatures our Year 8 pupils are proudly wearing their new ‘Leavers Hoodies’, which look great.

It was a real pleasure meeting all our ‘new’ pupils and parents/carers on Tuesday at the transition day and evening. We really value the opportunity to meet with our new families and hopefully alleviate any worries or concerns that may have developed as the move from the First school system to Hugh Sexey looms ever nearer. I would also like to thank my Year 5 team who worked very hard to ensure a really successful day.

While on the theme of success. Well done to all our Year 6 pupils and teachers who are celebrating a great set of SAT results. Once again the outcomes have improved and are significantly higher than the national figure. Over 80% of our pupils achieved or exceeded the ‘Age Related Expectation’ in the externally validated Reading, SPAG and Mathematics papers. It is testament to the hard work and commitment shown by our pupils and staff, they should be rightly proud of their achievements. We will of course publish our final data when these have been validated and our re-marks are finalised.

Well done to all involved in the swimming galas that have taken place, more detailed information is on the latest news section of the website. The Year 5 gala was a great event, with damp weather not spoiling the mood. Ben Carter broke a long standing record in the breaststroke with a time of 20.58 seconds and set another school record in the butterfly with a time of 16.73 seconds. Edie Pargeter, set a new record in the butterfly with a time of 19.40 secs. Katie Radford, 51.03 secs and Finley Halford 45.72 secs also added the record breaking day in the 2 length race . The Year 5 house competition ended with Celts victorious, Normans 2nd, Saxons 3rd and Vikings 4th.

The Year 6 gala was a close run event with only 6 points separating 1st and 4th place. There were some really strong performances from Daisy Franks, Millie Pargeter and Aaron Cocking. The Year 6 house competition ended with Saxons finishing 1st, Celts 2nd, Vikings 3rd and Normans 4th.

In the Year 7 event we were treated to a thrilling climax as Vikings snatched victory in the last race. There were some wonderful individual performances with Chloe Bott, Harriet Griffiths and Hannah Carter all swimming well. The boy’s races were all very close with Jacob Ayres and Sergio Wadley excelling. The Year 7 house competition ended with Vikings 1st, Celts 2nd, Normans 3rd and Saxons 4th.

Finally the Year 8 gala provided a perfect opportunity for our enthusiastic swimmers to have one last chance at representing their houses. Lydia Menear had an excellent afternoon setting a new record in the 2 length butterfly with a time of 38.15 seconds and breaking a long standing record in the 4 length front crawl event with a time of 1.06.73. Austin Peters also set a new record in the 2 length butterfly with a time of 39.36 seconds. What a great way to say goodbye to the pool. The final Year 8 swim gala saw Vikings 1st, Normans 2nd, Celts 3rd and finally Saxons 4th.

Friday 30th June

A huge thank you to the PTA and staff who helped organise and run the Summer Fayre on Friday, it was a brilliant way to end the week and say farewell to June. Food, Drink, Music, Pony rides and INFLATABLES! Who could ask for more?

Thank you also to those parents who came along on Tuesday night and met with Mr Sage and I to explore the whole school Anti-bullying policy. It was a really useful discussion and has given us some useful feedback which will be incorporated into our policy and practise.

Well done to the Vikings House captains, who organised this week’s charity events. I am always amazed and delighted by the school’s strong sense of ‘charity’ and the pupils desire to support each chosen benefactor.

Talking to a lot of our year 7 pupils the feedback was very positive following their two-day taster visit to Kings of Wessex. We are extremely grateful to our colleagues at Kings as this plays a really important role in ensuring the smooth transition at the end of year 8. With that in mind we hope that the transition day on the 4th for our Year 8 pupils goes extremely well, when they will find out who their tutor will be and they get to follow a sample curriculum day. It is sad and exciting to think that they only have 15 school days left with us.

Thank you to the NSPCC who delivered a fantastic ‘Speak out. Stay safe’ workshop to our Year 5 pupils.

Finally, well done to the Year 6 cricket team who return victorious from their all day tournament this week. Keep up the good work.

Friday 23rd June 2017

That was a HOT week with temperatures soaring on Monday and Tuesday. Our pupils were fantastic taking this in their stride and embracing the fabulous opportunities on offer this week. It was a delight for me to be able to join our Year 6 pupils and staff at Barton Hall on Wednesday and Friday as they developed team skills and conquered personal fears and challenges. As always the pupils were a credit to the school as it is not an easy task to mobilise 130+ individuals to muster points and through a busy canteen. We will upload some images onto the latest news section of the website so that you can share in some of the great experiences they had.

We also held a cross curricular challenge day on Friday with Year 5 pupils working on circus skills, Year 7 on a competitive bridge building STEM project and our Year 8 exploring emotional health and well-being.

Well done to all those pupils who participated in the key stage 3 and Key Stage 2 sports days. A far more detailed report of the sporting outcomes can be found on the latest news section of the website. Thank you to those parents/carers who came and supported and to the staff and sports leaders who made the event a huge success. The Key stage 3 house results put Normans in 1st, with Celts 2nd, Saxons 3rd and Vikings 4th. The Year 6 results were a direct contrast with Vikings 1st, Saxons 2nd, Celts 3rd and Normans 4th. Finally, the Year 5 results were very close with Celts running out victors with Normans 2nd, Vikings 3rd and Saxons 4th.

Congratulations to our Year 8 Girls rounders team who beat all comers at the Mendip rounders tournament this week. They will now go on to represent Mendip at the summer games held at Millfield later this term. Well done girls, a great team effort.

While on the note of great team performances, congratulations to our Year 8 Boys cricket team who comfortably beat Fairlands in the return fixture here at HSMS. After suffering a defeat at the hands of Fairlands in the first game of the season, the team focused on the task and performed brilliantly with both bat and ball. It was an effective way to demonstrate their progress this year.

Well done Lilly in 8SK. Lilly got a gold medal in the 50m breaststroke and a bronze medal in the individual medley at the Taunton Deane Swim meet at Millfield.

Finally, we hope to see lots of you at the PTA Summer Fayre on Friday 30th June 2017. The event starts at 5.30pm, with a range of activities including: inflatables, Hog Roast, Bar and disco to keep you entertained until 9.30pm. Please see the latest news section of the website for more details.

Friday 16th June

Thank you to all those parents who attended the London meeting this week. It was great to have an opportunity to discuss the arrangements and talk through the concerns held by you before the residential trip in mid-July.

As stated last week we now have before school and after school provision in place and we will, this week, seek expressions of interest so that we can plan our staffing numbers. The before school club will run from 7.45am and the after-school club will run until 6.00pm, term time only.

Following feedback from our parental questionnaire earlier this year Mr Sage is arranging an ‘Anti-bullying’ workshop on Tuesday 27th June, which we hope will help inform our practise and policy.

Congratulations to our Year 8 Cricket team who defeated Sexey’s, Bruton in the Frank Steer U13 Memorial Shield and went on to play Millfield in the semi-final. Unfortunately, Millfield proved too strong in all aspects of the game. However, it was a fantastic achievement to have got through to the semi-final of the Somerset schools cricket cup. Well done to all those players involved.

Staying with cricket, congratulations to the Year 7 boys cricket team who secured a convincing 61 - 18 victory against a spirited Wells Blue side. For more details of both matches please check the latest news section of the website.

Well done to our Year 7 girl’s rounder’s team who played brilliantly against Wells Blue. All of the girls demonstrated excellent teamwork, organisation and a fantastic attitude.

Finally, congratulations to Alex Knocker in 6SB for securing 4th place at the St Dunstan School Epee and Foil fencing competition. Alex is new to the sport of fencing, only taking up the sport up 7 months ago, so this is a wonderful achievement.

Friday 9th June

That week seemed to fly by. I am sure days seemed to last longer when I was younger.

In light of the recent tragic events in London we have arranged a Parents’ briefing for those Year 8 pupils booked on the residential trips in July. This is to talk through our risk assessments and give parents the chance to ask questions and express their concerns. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families affected by this act of terrorism.

As our Year 8 pupils reach their final few weeks with us here at Hugh Sexey their activities and events keep coming. I hope that our Year 8 parents and carers had an informative time at this week’s Parents’ evening where Mr Ball had the opportunity to introduce himself as the new Headteacher. Thank you to Mrs Thorne, who yet again, efficiently organised the ‘final’ school Tutor group photo’s. This final memento should be available to order within the next two weeks.

While thinking about and reflecting on transition, a group of our Year 7 pupils had the wonderful opportunity to spend the morning in the Kings of Wessex Academy and experience computer science first hand. This was extremely well received and gave the pupils a real insight into the complexity of this GCSE computer based GCSE.

Despite the variable weather this week it was fabulous to see the whole of Key stage 3 taking part in the field events for the House sports day. There was an array of activities from the traditional athletic events to some fun inclusive ones. At the point of writing I do not yet know the results!

As you will know from a previous blog we competed in the UKMaths challenge. Congratulations to Kathleen Wright Year 8, Millie Court Year 7 William Aynsley Year 6, who achieved the highest score in their year group. Each performed in the top 1% nationally which is a truly remarkable achievement. Across the three year groups in a test aimed at Year 8’s from across the country our pupils were awarded 13 Golds, 4 silver and 7 bronze certificates. It is testament to the hard work and ability of these gifted mathematicians, well done.

Friday 26th May

As another great ½ term has come to an end I hope that you all have a wonderful break. As mentioned earlier this term the Governors and I are delighted to tell you that we have appointed Mr Matthew Drew, who currently teaches at Crispin school, to replace Mr Sage. Mr Drew, will I am sure, build on the excellent work that Mr Sage has done and we are looking forward to welcoming him to our team.

Following the feedback we sought from parents we have also appointed an after school provision co-ordinator who will start her role in September. This means that we will be able to offer out of school provision for those parents who would like to take advantage of this next year. The provision will run from 4.00pm to 6.00pm Monday to Friday, term time only. Booking information will follow later next term.

In the classroom our Year 5 pupils enjoyed a brilliant ‘Ancient Greek’ day with Clive Pig who is an inspirational presenter and really engages the pupils with the Greek culture and mythology. I know the feedback from our pupils and staff was excellent. Some of our Year 7 pupils developed their inspirational presentation skills this week leading the French Café project at our First schools. This is a really well received event and gives our pupils a chance to ‘show off’ their language skills as well as promote French across our partner schools.

Finally, congratulations to William Creswick 5ILH, who I had the pleasure of awarding a British Transport Police badge to this week in recognition of his fabulous community spirit. Well done William.

Friday 19th May

What a lovely way to finish the week. The Saxon Charity week, which featured the sponsored morning and lunchtime mile run, culminated in a colourful ‘onesie’ themed day while several of my colleagues faced a wet sponge attack from very willing and perhaps too eager pupils. A massive ‘Thank you’ to everyone who helped to organise and participate in the events.

Thank you to Ms Taylor who, this week, took 40 Year 7 pupils to Bristol on a RE trip and 40 Year 6 pupils to a Synagogue to bring the Humanities curriculum to life and help the pupils contextualise the multi-faith communities around them. The pupils had a brilliant day and had the opportunity to really explore the different cultural aspects of faith.

Our Year 6 and Year 7 Cricket teams faced a really tough challenge this week playing Millfield and Taunton. Both teams played really well and can be extremely proud of their performances against two very strong sides. Our Year 6 lost under the Barrington rules, with the game finishing 243 – 207. Our Year 7, playing a tradition 20 over fixture, lost the toss and were put in the field and Taunton made the most of this reaching 188 for 1. Some teams would have been really daunted by the size of the task, however, the boys fought hard and ended the game on 128 for 4. A score that would win most matches. Well done to all the boys that took part.

Mr Albrow received the scores for the pupils that took part in the UKMaths Challenge. Congratulations to all our Gold, Silver and Bronze certificate winners. We will share this success with you once the parents and carers have been officially notified.

Finally, congratulations to Lydia, 5JC, on passing her Grade 3 B flat Cornet exam with Merit! Well done and keep the good work.

Friday 12th May

I am so proud of our Year 6 pupils who this week completed their SATs. As expected their conduct during this week of formal assessment was exemplary and I hope that their hard work and brilliant attitude is rewarded with the outcomes that they truly deserve. The week is, despite our best efforts, very demanding and I know that ‘Fun Friday’ was welcome relief for both pupils and teachers alike. What a credit to the school and your parents/carers you all are. Well done!

As always it was great to welcome our First schools to the Athletics festival this week. Our Year 8 sports leaders always look forward to these events and never fail to provide a great experience for or future pupils. Whenever I speak to pupils or parents after the events they always remark on the fun and enjoyment that their children experience. It is a huge part of our transition work and the Year 8’s always ensure the pupils feel welcome and supported. I am sure with only 9 school weeks left before they move on our Year 8’s will be thinking about their own transition and the new challenges that await them.

On the theme of challenge, we face our own challenge in finding a replacement for Mr Sage, who after 11 years of dedicated work at HSMS, has decided that now is the right time to face new challenges of his own. We all wish him well and we will of course keep you informed about who will be fulfilling this role next academic year.

Monday 8th May

Our Year 5 boys travelled to Wells Cricket Club to participate in the annual Kwik cricket competition. They looked very professional in their whites and enjoyed a great, sunny afternoon of cricket in beautiful surroundings. The boys won all their matches and hence the tournament and will now go onto represent Mendip in the next round. Well done boys!

Congratulations to Tom Burke, 8SK, who picked up 3 medals at the Matt Fiddes Martial Arts South West championship. Tom got a gold for point stop sparring, and bronze medals for hand drills and 10 kick combo.

You may recall from an earlier blog that Ewan Phillips (Year 8) won the International Peace Poster Contest in November 2017. Ewan's poster was then entered into the District contest and will be included in an exhibition of all the winning “A Celebration of Peace” Posters from Lions Clubs in District 105SW, in the South Cloister of Wells Cathedral from Saturday 6th May until Friday 12th May. Fantastic work Ewan.

Our Year 8 played Churchill Academy in the first round of the Frank Steer U13 Memorial Shield. Fielding first Churchill were bowled out for 83 runs at the end of the 17th over in an 18 over innings. Charlie Jackson held the innings together batting to the penultimate ball as we passed the target set in the 15th over finishing on 84 for 7. A great game and some brilliant performances. We now meet Sexeys Bruton in the next round.

Congratulations to Poppy McGhee, who was a prize winner in the Young Musicians Platform 2017 competition. This a competition for outstanding young musicians under the age of 18 in the south west of England. Poppy, was we youngest competitor and was unanimously chosen by the panel of adjudicators (all of them prominent and internationally successful musicians) to be one of the four equal prize winners. Poppy, will now perform independently in a concert as part of The Two Moors Festival in October.

Tuesday 2nd May

I hope that you all enjoyed a long weekend and made the most of May day?

As always it was great to see so many of our Key Stage 3 Parents/carers at the subject evening last week. It is always great to share with you the wonderful progress that your children are making with us and agree strategies to support further learning.

On Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending the ‘Academies Show’ in London. Unfortunately, due to the somewhat surprising call for an early election many of the ministerial Key note speakers were unable attend. I can’t think why! Despite this it was a really interesting day with some very thought provoking if somewhat ‘crystal ball gazing’ presentations. The future for education and in particular the Fairer Funding debate is just one of many unknowns as we enter this electoral period. Rest assured we will continue to do our very best for our pupils and this community.

In school we took part in the first international ‘Share a Pencil Day’ which aims to raise awareness of the issues affecting children's ability to access good education, worldwide. Working with the not-for-profit organisation, ‘Hope’ and their Bright Futures campaign, ‘Share a Pencil Day’ aims to raise £10,000 for essential education. Pupils at HSMS enjoyed an assembly given by Mr Evan Lewis from ‘Hope’ and then pupils participated in the ‘World’s Largest Lesson’ to learn about the United Nations Goals for Sustainable Development, and focusing on ‘Why are so many children not in school?’ The Day was a wonderful success and children went away feeling much more connected and aware of the issue. They also raised over £80 to contribute to the Bright Futures Campaign through the sale of Share a Pencil Day pencils.

Well done to all of our budding Mathematicians who took part in the UK Maths challenge this week. The challenge is a really tough maths assessment which brings together the most able maths pupils from across the country. I am sure that our pupils have once again excelled and I look forward to receiving their outcomes.

As the Year 5 space topic approaches ‘splash down’ our pupils had a wonderful day @Bristol exploring the fantastic interactive displays and participating in great space experiments. The highlight of the day was their visit to the UK's only magnificent 3D Planetarium. Staff and pupils all stated what a brilliant time they had.

As part of the English curriculum our Year 8 pupils enjoyed a wonderful Romeo & Juliet performance on Friday afternoon. This enhanced their knowledge and understanding of one of Shakespeare’s most well know plays and brought to life the theory work that they have covered in lessons.

Our U12 girls played in the Somerset Schools Cup final against Crispin at Street FC. The team worked really well together dominating Crispin and in the end ran out comfortable winners. For more information please see the Latest News section of the website. Congratulations girls on becoming the County champions.

Meanwhile our U11 boys went to Millfield to compete in the Basketball SASP finals. The standard of basketball was excellent with most other teams including much taller players which they used to their advantage to rebound both in attack and defence. Despite this lack of height our boys were superb all afternoon, winning 3 and losing 4, which saw us finish 4th overall out of seven teams.

Good luck to all our Year 6 pupils next week as they sit the SATs. I know that they will be fully prepared and hopefully full of confidence as they turn the paper over to begin!

Friday 21st April

Welcome back after what I hope was a fantastic Easter break for you all. We were certainly blessed with good weather, which I hope will continue throughout the summer term. This is always a really exciting term with our Year 8 pupils looking forward to new challenges as they move on in their educational journey while our pastoral team work extremely hard to ensure a positive and smooth transition for children from our First schools.

I am sure that those parents/carers who drop off at the loop will have noticed our new fence. Just a reminder that the gates will be locked at 9.00am and opened at 3.40pm. Any Child arriving between these times should, as usual, sign in at the main reception.

As always we had a brilliant end to the term with Year 5 enjoying the wonderful planetarium as part of their ‘space’ project. We also had over 500 members of our wider community join us for the evening ‘Stargazing’ event. A huge thank you to Mrs Farrell, Mrs Edmonds, The PTA and Jo Richardson who worked tirelessly to ensure we hosted a great evening.

The Normans fund-raising week for Water Aid was a big success, with an incredible £585.82 raised. This money will go to improving safe water supplies and sanitation across the world. Thank you to all those involved.

Congratulations to Mark Youth Theatre on their recent production of Annie. It was lovely to see so many of our pupils taking part and enjoying the show.

5JC who are currently studying the climate and biomes were very lucky to welcome a parent into the classroom. Mr. Clark gave a brilliant presentation on life in the Antarctic. They learnt about the climate and the animals who live there from exciting, first-hand experience.

Year 5 were also visited by the RNLI who provided some very important information about the work that they do and how to ensure that our pupils can stay safe when enjoying the beautiful coastline.

Our Year 7 Girls football team entertained Wells Blue. Wells Blue instantly put HSMS under a lot of pressure but some really strong defending from Grace and great goalkeeping from Millie kept them out. As the team’s confidence grew the ball was passed around swiftly and HSMS took control. The game ended in a 7-0 victory with a really impressive team performance.

The Year 7 netball team travelled to Frome to represent the school in a netball tournament. In their pool, they played Wells Blue, Selwood Middle School and Crispin. Despite the windy conditions the team played extremely well, winning one, drawing one and losing one game. For more details please see the latest news section of the website.

Moving to a sport using a smaller ball, well done to the 3 pupils who represented HSMS, at the Somerset Schools' Golf Championship. Ethan Franklin finished in 44th place, with a respectable score of 84. Beth Williams scored 76 and finished 8th, while, Jessica Haines scored 64 to finish 3rd in the net competition and 6th in the gross. Well done!

Six boys ran in the final race of the Mendip Junior Cross Country League. There was another strong performance from all our runners with HSMS securing a very credible 4th out of 22 schools in the end of season placings. A top 10 finish for Oscar has also earned him an invite to represent Mendip in a Somerset inter-area match in April.

Finally, I hope that all our KS3 Parents/Carers have received their child’s latest report and we look forward to seeing you all at the Parents’ evening next week.